PREMIER SET TO DRILL WILDCAT IN IRISH SEA

Premier Consolidated Oilfields plc is the latest company to drill in Irish Sea Grid 110 off the west coast of England. Here British Gas plc has Morecambe gas field on stream, but more recent discoveries hold significant oil as well as gas reserves. Premier is to spud a wildcat on Block 110/10, 5 miles off the coastal resort of Blackpool. The block was awarded in the 12th offshore licensing round. This 40 day drilling program will complete the single well commitment on the license.

Aug. 24, 1992

3 min read

Premier Consolidated Oilfields plc is the latest company to drill in Irish Sea Grid 110 off the west coast of England.

Here British Gas plc has Morecambe gas field on stream, but more recent discoveries hold significant oil as well as gas reserves.

Premier is to spud a wildcat on Block 110/10, 5 miles off the coastal resort of Blackpool. The block was awarded in the 12th offshore licensing round. This 40 day drilling program will complete the single well commitment on the license.

A 1991 seismic survey revealed an oil and gas prospect on the block, which lies just north of a recent Hamilton Oil Co. Ltd. discovery on Block 110/15.

Premier has chartered the Penrod 80 jack up for its well.

HAMILTON ACTIVITY

The Penrod rig has just finished Hamilton's 110/15-6Z, an appraisal sidetrack of a discovery well drilled 4 miles from shore in 35 ft of water.

The discovery flowed oil and gas from two zones. A limited interval test in the oil zone flowed as much as 1,370 b/d through a 24/64 in. choke. The gas zone test flowed as much as 78 MMcfd.

Hamilton has three potential development projects on Block 110/13, which lies 15 miles west of the discovery. These are Douglas oil field, Hamilton gas field, and North Hamilton gas field.

Douglas, discovered in 1990, is thought to hold reserves of 120 million bbl of oil. Hamilton plans to place the field on stream in 1995, building production to a peak of 40,000 b/d during 1996.

Hamilton is a 1991 discovery estimated to hold 500 bcf of recoverable gas. Production is planned to begin in 1995, peaking at 240 MMcfd in 1996.

North Hamilton, also a 1991 discovery, is earmarked for production startup in 1997. The field holds 250 bcf of gas and will be brought to peak flow of 80 MMcfd in 1998.

NORTH MORECAMBE

Earlier this month British Gas spudded well 110/2a-N1, the first of 12 production wells for North Morecambe field. Eight of them are to be drilled by next summer.

North Morecambe is estimated to hold more than 1 tcf of gas. It will be developed with a drilling and production platform, not normally manned, on a four legged steel jacket.

Gas will be delivered, starting in autumn 1994, through a 36 in. pipeline to a new gas terminal at Barrow, Cumbria. Said to be one of the largest, most complex gas terminals in the U.K., it will process 518 MMcfd for shipment in the national transmission system.

North Morecambe production will boost total flow from Morecambe fields to nearly 2.4 bcfd. British Gas recently upgraded the Morecambe field's facilities as part of its plan to double Morecambe area output (OGJ, Aug. 17, p. 68).