Finder has entered into three farmout transactions with Dana Petroleum in relation to P2527, P2528 and P2530 in the Central North Sea
Finder signs three farmout transactions in UK. (Credit: Finder Energy)
Finder is pleased to announce that it has signed farmout agreements to assign a 40% interest in each of P2527, P2528 and P2530 to Dana Petroleum (E&P) Limited (Dana Petroleum or Dana). These transactions are conditional on the usual regulatory approvals which are expected to be obtained within a month.
Finder will retain a 60% interest and operatorship in each of the licences. Finder retaining a 60% interest allows for secondary farmouts to secure funding for wells whilst still retaining meaningful levels of participation in any discovery.
“Dana Petroleum’s like-minded exploration strategy, development and
production capabilities as well as ownership of proximal North Sea infrastructure makes them a partner of choice for Finder and demonstrates the significant potential for further value-accretive deals from our ILX strategy. We are very pleased to build on our existing partnership with Dana. These three deals represent a significant expansion of our mutual aspirations in the North Sea, with a focus on prospectivity around the giant Buzzard Oil Field.” DAMON NEAVES, CEO
Under the transactions, Finder will receive cash payments on completion totalling £1.3 million (AUD: $2.3 million). Dana Petroleum will also contribute its participating interest share of future work program costs on each licence which reduces Finder’s budgeted expenditure. This results in Finder’s forecast cash runway being extended by more than 12 months.
Dana is an existing joint venture partner of Finder in P2502 in the East Shetland Basin.
These transactions represent a significant expansion of Finder’s partnership with Dana with a focus on pursuing prospectivity in the area of the giant Buzzard Oil Field.
Finder has licensed modern 3D seismic datasets and recently completed two major high end PSDM-FWI 3D reprocessing projects over P2527, P2528 and P2530, called the ‘Big Buzz’ and ‘Big Bird’ 3D Repro Projects . The results of the reprocessed datasets have exceeded Finder’s expectations with both showing significant improvement in imaging at the target objectives. Interpretation and prospect generation on the new data is underway.
Within P2527 and P2528 the Upper Jurassic sandstones form the key objectives for stratigraphic traps identified on the vintage 3D datasets. These are the same as the productive reservoirs of the giant Buzzard Oil Field (with reserves of over 1 billion barrels). The Big Buzz reprocessing project took 4 vintage 3D surveys through a high end processing flow to produce a final merged contiguous dataset over both licenses and surrounding analogous oil fields.
Licence P2530 is located within the North Kittiwake Basin and is surrounded by the giant Forties and Nelson fields to the north, and the Kittiwake and Gannet Fields to the south. The key play level in the licence is the Upper Jurassic Fulmar Sandstones which are a proven and highly prolific reservoir in many nearby oil fields. Prospectivity
is focussed within the Jurassic syn-rift depocenters and is associated with both salt cored highs and adjacent mini basins. Multiple opportunities are currently identified, including historical discoveries, combination structuralstratigraphic traps and four-way dip features. Interpretation and prospect generation on the new Big Bird data is underway to better understand prospective resources and risking.
Following interpretation of the new Big Buzz and Big Bird reprocessed data, Finder will commence a secondary farmout process in the new year aimed at securing partners and funding to drill the key prospect(s) that emerge from our evaluation of these datasets.
Source: Company Press Release