United Oil & Gas plc reported potential “significant near-term” returns from contingent resources on the Maria discovery within licence P2519 in the UK Central North Sea (CNS).
MARIA
The company’s 100% owned licence P2519 includes blocks 15/18e and 15/19c and covers some 225 km2.
The licence contains the existing Maria discovery in the Forties Sandstone, drilled by Shell/Esso in 1976, and lies near existing producing fields and infrastructure.
The P2519 licence also contains two Jurassic discoveries, Brochel and Maol with the latter drilled by Shell in 1987 and on test flowed at more than 2,000 boepd.
AUDIT RESULTS
United said that an independent contingent resources audit by Gaffney, Cline & Associates Ltd showed mid-case 2C gross contingent resources for the Forties and Dornoch reservoirs estimated at 6.3 mmbbls and 23.3Bcf (10.2 mmboe).
Resources estimated at Maria range from 3.3 mmbbls and 13.2 Bcf (5.5 mmboe) in the 1C case to 11.1 mmbbls and 39.3 Bcf (17.7 mmboe) in the 3C case.
The company added that the audit focused on petroleum estimated to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations but not currently considered commercially recoverable due to one or more contingencies.
Contingent resources are not classified as reserves because of conditions including uncertainties of future oil prices and performance of the initial pilot wells in the first phase of the field development, which must be resolved to ensure commerciality.
United said that there was no certainty of commercially viability of any portion of the resources.
VALIDATION
“The independent audit further validates the work produced by our in-house technical team,” added chief executive Brian Larkin.
“The report highlights the value of our 100% interest in this late stage appraisal and development asset that has the potential to deliver significant near term value to our shareholders.
“We are making good progress on potential options to maximise shareholder value from this licence.”