Scottish firm wraps up ‘challenging’ job for Canadian oil & gas player’s Baltic Sea drilling ops

Zenith Energy, an Aberdeen-headquartered well engineering consultancy and project management company, has finished its scope of work for a well drilled with one of Noble Corporation’s jack-up rigs at a concession in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Poland.

The UK player executed in 70 days the delivery of the Wolin East 1 (WE 1) well, which entailed what is said to be a complex rig move, extremely shallow water depth, and challenging drilling conditions in Polish waters. Noble Corporation’s Noble Resolve jack-up rig, which conducted the drilling operation, was expected to be moved to Frederikshavn, Denmark.

The WE-1 was drilled, cored, and logged before being suspended for future re-entry for CEP Central European Petroleum, a subsidiary of Central European Petroleum (CEP), a Canadian exploration and production company based in Calgary, with the majority ownership held by Norwegian investors.

Zenith Energy’s assignment encompassed the provision of full well management, covering all well engineering, procurement, supply chain management, services contracting, health, safety and environmental management, logistical support, and supervision of the well operations for the first well to be drilled at CEP’s Wolin concession in the Baltic Sea.

Martin Booth, Managing Director of Zenith Energy, commented: “We are proud to have successfully completed this challenging project with Central European Petroleum. The Wolin well presented technical and logistical challenges, but our team’s expertise and dedication ensured a safe and efficient operation.

“Zenith Energy extends its gratitude to CEP for their trust and collaboration throughout the project. The company remains committed to delivering high-quality well engineering and project management services for our clients worldwide.”

CEP has confirmed that the data obtained during drilling is now undergoing detailed analysis, with initial results looking promising; thus, resource estimates will be updated based on the data gathered from WE 1, with results expected in the next two to three months.

Rolf G. Skaar, CEO of Central European Petroleum, stated: “Thanks to our extensive experience with similar wells across Europe, the entire WE 1 drilling operation was completed as planned. We will now undertake a thorough analysis of all the data obtained during drilling, which will take a few months.”

Covering an area of 593 square kilometers, the Wolin concession was given to CEP by Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment in 2017. The firm aims to explore for hydrocarbons in the Ca2 main Dolomite and the Rotliegend reservoirs. The pre-drilling data for the WE1 well suggested that the main dolomite Ca2 reservoir could contain up to 16.5 bcm of recoverable gas and 10.3 million cubic meters of recoverable liquids.

The company sees Wolin as a major natural gas area with a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, the Police petrochemical complex, and future LNG fueling of ships, which is expected to boost Poland’s natural gas supply and help the country decarbonize its economy.

“The right granted to Central European Petroleum to explore, assess, and extract hydrocarbons in the Wolin license presents a unique opportunity in the Baltic Sea area where very few wells have been drilled previously,” emphasized Central European Petroleum.