Deltic Energy upbeat on recent work at Cupertino Prospect

(Sharecast News) - Natural resources investment company Deltic Energy updated the market on licence P2428 on Monday, which contains the Cupertino Prospect, following the completion of detailed technical evaluation of the Southern North Sea licence.
The AIM-traded firm was awarded licence P2428 in the UK's 30th Offshore Licensing Round, with an effective date of 1 October 2018.

Preliminary work completed by Deltic to support the application process identified the potential for "significant prospectivity" in the deeper carboniferous section.

Deltic said it also recognised the limitations of the preexisting legacy 2D seismic datasets, and the potential uplift in data quality which could be achieved through modern reprocessing workflows.

Throughout 2019, the company said its technical team worked closely with contractors to reprocess 852 line kilometres of vintage 2D data using a modern pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) workflow, which resulted in a "significant uplift" in data quality.

The technical work completed since the reprocessed seismic data was delivered both matured the Cupertino Prospect, and identified "significant, previously-unrecognised" prospectivity in the Rotliegend northern feather edge play, as well as the emerging Zechstein Reef play, the board said.

It added that the licenced area also contained the depleted and decommissioned Forbes gas field, which produced gas from the Triassic Bunter Sandstone between 1985 and 1995, and which had previously been evaluated for its gas storage potential and its possible suitability for carbon dioxide storage in the future.

"The strength and progression of Deltic's growing asset base and its pipeline of drilling prospects continue to be enhanced as we further refine the multiple opportunities it holds," said chief executive officer Graham Swindells.

"Our technical team continues to produce exceptional work, uncovering more previously unrecognised prospectivity in this underexplored part of the basin.

"With combined P50 recoverable gas resources in excess of 900 billion cubic feet, or the equivalent to in excess of 150 million barrels of oil, these prospects are clearly material in terms of their overall scale both individually and collectively."

Swindells said that, in addition to the Selene and Pensacola prospects with Shell, the Cupertino stacked prospects, coupled with its recently re-acquired Cadence prospect, followed by its other recent licence awards, were delivering the company's stated strategy of "developing a conveyor belt" of exploration drilling opportunities of material scale.

"Our attention will now turn to attracting the best possible partner to help us take these opportunities forward towards drilling."

At 1110 GMT, shares in Deltic Energy were down 1.61% at 0.91p.