Wintershall Noordzee develops third Sillimanite well

Wintershall Noordzee BV, a 50-50 joint venture of Wintershall Dea GmbH and Gazprom EP International BV, drilled the Sillimanite South field discovery well in the North Sea and directly converted it into a development sidetrack.

It is the third well drilled in sequence after the two Sillimanite Unit field development wells were successfully brought into production earlier this year (OGJ Online, June 16, 2020). The JV is finalizing the hook-up activities to the D12-B production platform situated close to the Anglo-Dutch border in Dutch territorial waters. From there, the produced gas will be transported via the Neptune-operated D15-A production platform, through the NGT gas transportation system to shore.

The unitized Sillimanite gas field, discovered in 2015, lies about 200 km off the coast of Den Helder on the maritime border of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in license block 44/19a on the UK side and blocks D12a and D12b on the Dutch side. The Sillimanite South prospect lies entirely in block D12a. An agreement was reached in 2018 to allow for development to proceed. Production begin early this year (OGJ Online, Feb. 20, 2020).

Both Sillimanite and Sillimanite South gas fields are producing from sandstone reservoirs of Carboniferous age at a depth of 3,700 m subsea.

Wintershall Noordzee BV operates the Sillimanite South joint venture with 39.5%. Partners are EBN BV 50% and Neptune Energy 10.5%.