Major gas discovery off West Shetlands for Total, Ineos, SSE

(Sharecast News) - The exploration arm of French energy giant Total has unearthed a major gas discovery at its Glendronach site among the West Shetland islands, also giving a boost to UK partners Ineos and SSE, which each own 20%. Preliminary tests of Glendronach, which is located in the Greater Laggan area, west of Shetland, indicate an estimated 1trn cubic feet of gas, equivalent to around 10bn therms, according to Total. The site has good reservoir quality, permeability and well production deliverability, and in water depth of about 300 meters, Total said the discovery can be developed quickly and at low cost with the existing infrastructure around the Edradour field and the Laggan-Tormore facilities of the Shetland Gas Plant, in which Total owns 60% and Ineos and SSE also have 20% stakes.SSE's equity interests in more than 15 gas producing fields across 17 licences around the UK continental shelf, gave it gas reserves estimated at 1.9bn therms on a net proven and probable basis, as of 31 March this year. The Glendronach discovery is in addition to those."Glendronach is a significant discovery for Total which gives us access to additional gas resources in one of our core areas and validates our exploration strategy, said Arnaud Breuillac, Total's president of exploration & production.Martin Pibworth, SSE's wholesale director, added: "This discovery represents a major addition to SSE's recoverable gas resources. Gas production assets are a natural complement to SSE's interests in gas-fired power generation and gas supply to business customers. They are expected to add to SSE's earnings from gas production in due course."