Chances for development of the Goddard natural gas discovery in the UK North Sea have risen to 75% after third-party confirmation of the resource estimate, reports Independent Oil & Gas PLC (IOG), London.
ERC Equipoise Ltd. estimated gross midpoint contingent resources at 108 bcf for the main Goddard structure and at 73 bcf for two adjacent structures directly east of the discovery, in line with IOG estimates.
Goddard, previously known as Glein, is a 1994 ARCO discovery on Blocks 48/11c and 48/12b of the PL2438 license, in which IOG acquired 100% interest in a round last May.
Discovery well 48/11a-12 encountered 478 ft of gas pay in Permian Leman sandstone with gas down to 10,081 ft TVD subsea. One of the adjoining fault blocks has been penetrated by a well that was not tested.
The license commits IOG to drill an appraisal well and reprocess 175 sq km of 3D seismic data with prestack depth migration within 3 years.
Chief Executive Officer Andrew Hockey said the appraisal well will test the southeastern extent of the Goddard discovery and the adjoining structures. He said the newly confirmed midpoint continent-resource estimate would make the discovery economic to develop but added, “It is important to delineate the full size of this discovery with the appraisal well so that the development plan can be optimized.”
IOG’s current development plan is for three hydraulically stimulated horizontal wells in 82 ft of water, completed subsea or from an unstaffed platform with production delivered through a new 28-mile pipeline to IOG’s Blythe hub under development to the south. The Blythe hub is to be linked with a recommissioned Thames pipeline to deliver gas to the Bacton Terminal.
