RE: Re: BOD22 Apr 2019 13:46
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I believe you may have stumbled upon the real reason for the disappointment of the appraisal well result. It was in fact more exploratory than appraisal, within a very complex geological structure. This is best expressed in this excerpt from Graham Dore, who was Nexen's senior geologist for the Buzzard field.
"Doré's intimate involvement in Buzzard from the get-go is a striking example of the wildcatter ethos: unfailing optimism and creative, original thinking that focuses outside the mainstream and more in the unconventional realm.
The lengthy circuitous path he traveled from the initial concept in 1992 to the discovery well is a lesson in patience and perseverance that should encourage explorationists, whether rookie or pro -- particularly in today's environment, where even the mention of rank exploration can trigger anxiety attacks among management types.
Convinced the sands in the Buzzard area harbored a big find even though there were no telling signs geologically, Doré tried to persuade his then-employer to drill, but to no avail.
"There were peers who saw the merit in the play," Doré said, "and management could understand the concepts, but the play itself was seen as very risky. At the end of the day, there were a lot of companies who could have been involved and decided not to purely on a risk basis.
"It was seen as a very risky stratigraphic trap in the Jurassic sands, and they didn't like it."
The field, in fact, is a stratigraphic pinchout with the pinchout toward the sand source, which is unusual for the Jurassic for the North Sea.
"Another unusual thing, it was drilled within a graben within a low rather than a traditional Jurassic trap drilled on a structural high," Doré said, "which is the norm for the most part."
Unwilling to throw in the towel after the initial round of drilling refusals, Doré moved on in 1997, joining PanCanadian (now the U.K. arm of Nexen), which was just setting up shop in the United Kingdom at the time.
"They thought Buzzard was a good idea," Doré said, "and when the next license round came along and the blocks became available to pick up, they agreed to go with it and acquired the acreage in 1999."
These types of plays are about as complicated as they get and that has to be taken into consideration when levelling any criticism.. Following the discovery at Buzzard, the appraisal stepped out 1.5 kms and the oil column increased from 400ft to 750 ft. I believe the Equinor geologists were thinking along the same lines with the appraisal at Verbier but for whatever reason it didn't work out. I'm still of the opinion that they crossed a fault into another compartment and it wasn't strictly speaking the same structure as the discovery. If true, then that should give us all confidence about the size of the original discovery but only time will tell. One things for sure, we will not get anything approaching the real picture until after the May 2nd, after which we might just get a
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