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4 weeks to side track a well three months to drill and tie new well into Aoka Mizu

Has to be !

The UK North Sea oil and gas entrepreneur at the helm of Parkmead Group, Tom Cross, has confirmed key projects for the energy firm were making “significant” progress.

These include the Greater Perth Area (GPA) development in the central North Sea and the Platypus gas project in the southern sector.

Mr Cross said Parkmead had a “proven way to get oil from Perth to the market” and he hoped to have a field development plan (FDP) submitted to the industry regulator later this year.

Speaking from his Aberdeen home after Granite City-based Parkmead posted first-half results, Mr Cross said a tie-back of GPA to the nearby Scott facilities, operated by CNOOC, and export via the Forties pipeline was a “complete technical solution” for a project targeting up to 130 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), in “probable” resource terms.

Parkmead is also looking at ways to “sweep up” other pools of oil in the area, Mr Cross added.

The company submitted its FDP for Playtypus last October, hoping for project sanction by July and start-up for an estimated 4,600 boe per day next year.

But Covid-19 has forced the Oil and Gas Authority to prioritise its workload and the Platypus timetable is likely to slip.

He said Parkmead was operationally profitable during the six months to December 31, but a £1.3m write-down linked to the disposal of non-core acreage pushed statutory earnings into the red. Pre-tax losses came in at £1.4m, against profits of £3.8m a year ago, while lower gas prices drove a near 60% drop in revenue to £2.1m.

Scooby: Forget what ?
Every one that farms in the North East knew that Tom's wife had bought the land.......We now know for what purpose.

Dickupham: Ha ha ha I just listen to you and I'm convinced of everything you say .

5 years away to first oil......What's the wait for ?

Scooby-Doo. As long as there are buyers the price will sustain !
Parkmead are into Gas Oil and renewable energy.

Livingthedream: The FID was due second quarter for platypus but due to Covid-19 it is now under review !

Sanction delayed.

Spring clean .....changing of the guard...still marching !

ADUK: Well worded !

Believe !

"including discoveries in neighbouring licenses".....so why did PMG relinquish Polecat and Marten..?
-----------------
Open the door for Longboat Energy.

Agreed 100%

Every one in the same boat Scooby !

Scooby: serious shareholders holding ! Cmon you need to stay focused.

Daltry: Wasn't being negative, I like many want the price of oil up

WEST of Shetland-focused Hurricane Energy has underlined the scale of the challenges it will face operating in the area following the slump in the oil price amid the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

Hurricane helped stoke huge excitement about the potential of West of Shetland in recent years by making big finds in the area. It made $30 million (£24m) profit last year after starting production from the giant Lancaster field in June.
However, in the company’s annual report its chairman Steven McTiernan said: “Given the major impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, all future opportunities are being re-evaluated taking into account much lower oil prices.”

He noted: “The costs and time required to exploit such opportunities in the operating environmentWest of Shetland are significant, and a supportive economic environment is a pre-requisite.”

Mr McTiernan said Hurricane’s board will exercise extreme caution over the scale and pace of future capital spending, although it has a strong balance sheet.

He warned that investor interest in the sector has “drastically reduced”..

The comments provide a further indication that firms that control North Sea fields are bracing for a long downturn.

Businesses in the supply chain are already coming intense pressure following the fall in the crude price this year and the logistical challenges posed by the coronavirus.

Brent crude sold for around $28 per barrel yesterday afternoon against $70/bbl in January.

Experts warned that record production cuts agreed by Opec Plus countries at the weekend were not on a big enough scale to make much difference to oil prices.

Rystad Energy said: “This is a crisis that needs bolder mobilization from producers.”

The consultancy said firms were likely to slash investment in UK North Sea developments and exploration activity in the area in the current oil price environment.

Bjarne Schieldrop at Scandinavian bank SEB noted that Saudi Arabia and Russia had signalled they might agree to make deeper production cuts.

Hurricane Energy’s annual report shows chief executive Robert Trice earned £604,000 total remuneration in 2019, in line with the preceding year.

Mr McTiernan earned £150,000 fees in the latest year.

Part 11

This is a new play for Shell in the SNS but it opens up further follow-up opportunity because there’s a number of other types of gas prospects around the basin.”

The other prospect Shell has farmed into is Selene, also in the SNS, with a well investment decision expected in the near-term, with CLNR “potentially drilling two wells with Shell next year”.

However CLNR isn’t content with that, eagerly looking ahead to the Oil and Gas Authority’s 32nd offshore licensing awards in the second quarter of the year.

The firm thinks it can “largely replicate” the success of the 31st round when it won six licences.

This time it looked for blocks near existing infrastructure and its other prospects, largely in the SNS, but it has also made applications in the CNS.

CLNR hopes to broaden out, growing the company such that “in the future it has a diversified portfolio of drilling prospects and is not reliant on the outcome of one well”.

The SNS is experiencing a “renaissance”, according to Swindells.

That’s in no small part due to the UK’s competitive regulatory regime, he argued, but also recognition that gas will have a key role to play as the energy transition progresses.

CLNR is also proud to be able to find value in “overlooked” prospects in the region.

Swindells added: “I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve been able to go through the scrutiny that a company like Shell places on technical work and also that we played a key part in introducing the likes of Shell back into the SNS from an exploration perspective.

“This is the first farm-out that Shell has done in the SNS for many, many years and we hope this is the start of a long-term relationship with them.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that the UK is a mature basin but, nonetheless, our view is there’s still a significant amount of opportunity to go for.

“I think that we have already demonstrated that there are quite a number of opportunities that have been overlooked and have been less well understood – even the ones we’ve farmed out to Shell have been held by previous operators in the past.

“We’re all aware of the energy transition and the impact of gas.

“I like to think most people understand that gas will be the transition fuel and as a result the SNS is going through something of a renaissance and we’re seeing increasing levels of interest from both smaller independents right through to majors such as Shell.”

recent weeks.

The firm felt compelled to send out a notice clarifying its insulated position, with minimal exposure to commodity pricing, which is largely true given CLNR is mainly focused on exploration and appraisal.

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However as the effects of coronavirus – Covid-19 – became clear and Brent tumbled, so did the realisation that M&A activity in the North Sea would also take a hit.

Delays, then, for CLNR’s “drill-ready” Dewar prospect, which it started the farm-out process for last year.

This “really nice” play has estimated recovery of nearly 40 million barrels of oil and lies just three miles from existing infrastructure at BP’s Etap area in the central North Sea (CNS).

Chief executive Graham Swindells said: “This is a drill-ready prospect and we are focused on getting a deal done.

“We are in dialogue with a number of parties but our feeling is that because of recent events the likelihood is that process is going to take a little bit longer than anticipated originally.

“If we can get a farm-out for Dewar then conceivably we can be drilling as many as three wells next year and that gives us the potential to have a high impact drilling programme.”

With Etap being so close though, are discussions under way with BP? Naturally he couldn’t answer that directly, but wasn’t totally tight-lipped.

Swindells said: “What I am able to say certainly given its very close proximity to the Etap infrastructure, which is no more than five kilometres away, that would be a very obvious offtake route.

“Equally though, there are other producing fields very close by.”

However the CNS isn’t the core region for CLNR, whose bread and butter is the southern North Sea (SNS) gas basin where it has some big milestones on the horizon.

The first is progress on the Pensacola gas prospect, with 300 billion cubic feet recoverable, which Shell farmed into last year.

A firmed-up well investment decision is due by November, with drilling by the end of next year.

It’s a Zechstein Reef Play, important because ONE-Dyas last year struck oil on a similar type of prospect last year, Darach, which had initially been targeting gas.

That gives plenty of encouragement to the Shell-CLNR partnership.

Swindells said: “It’s very similar to the Darach prospect so it is a very positive read-across for us.

“Our understanding is that the Darach prospect flowed at about 3,500 barrels of oil a day.

“It is a largely new play for the SNS basin, it’s a Zechstein Reef Play which has been successfully done around the world, certainly onshore Europe, but less so offshore.

“This is a new play for Shell in the SNS but it opens up further follow-up opportunity because there’s a number of oth