i3 set to spud Serenity well in UK North Sea

i3 Energy, and independent oil and gas firm focused on the UK North Sea, is set to begin drilling its Serenity SA-01 well shortly, following the plugging of the pilot well at its Liberator offshore field.

i3 on Friday said it had plugged and abandoned the recently drilled 13/23c-9 pilot well on the Liberator Field, following completion of the vertical seismic profile (“VSP”) survey and shear wave sonic logging. The objective of this pilot well was to enable a future development well to be positioned at an optimal location in the upper Captain sands channel in the south-eastern area of the Liberator field.

The semi-submersible drilling rig used for the well – the Borgland Dolphin – will soon be moved to drill the Serenity SA-01 well as the second well in i3’s drilling program. i3 has previously said it is hoping that drilling will confirm that the Serenity structure, which the company estimates could contain 197 MMbbls of STOIIP, is hydrocarbon bearing and that it is a material extension of the Tain discovery.

“Permitting for the SA-01 well is underway and mobilization operations will commence as soon as the consent to locate permit is obtained from the regulatory authorities. The rig has been down-manned to minimize standby costs. Once drilling begins, the well is expected to take approximately four weeks,” i3 said Friday.

Liberator well to be drilled after Serenity

The company said it had purchased a recently processed 3D seismic data set that will be integrated into its modelling ahead of drilling the LA-03 appraisal well at Liberator.

“This newly processed seismic has the characteristics necessary to allow an inversion process to be applied, enabling additional interpretation of the channel sand architecture. The processing and interpretation of this new seismic data will be undertaken while i3 is drilling the Serenity SA-01 well and will be integrated with i3’s existing mapping to confirm that the planned LA-03 well, situated in the western part of the Liberator structure, remains at an optimal location,” i3 said.

Majid Shafiq, CEO of i3 Energy, said: “Serenity is a high value exploration target and an exciting opportunity for i3 Energy and its shareholders. The structure itself is entirely separate from Liberator and will add significantly t o the Company’s resources in a success case. Drilling the Serenity well ahead of LA-03 will provide the necessary opportunity to process our findings from well 13/23c-9. We look forward to updating shareholders on further progress in due course once the permitting for the Serenity well has been completed.”

i3 has previously said its plan was to bring the first phase of the Liberator oil field development to production in 2020. The company is planning to bring the field online via an FPSO, either using Repsol Sinopec-operated Bleo Holm FPSO, or an FPSO to be directly leased by i3.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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