Project Profile
Value: US$400 million
Location: 140km southeast of the Shetland Islands in Block 9/21, UK
Reserves: 6.2 MMBbls 2C resources (new structures can add 46 MMBbls of oil in place)
Start-up Year: 2016
A heavy oil field located some 140km southeast of the Shetland Islands in Block 9/21. The field was first discovered in 1990 by Unocal. The Skipper field is to be developed with a new revolutionary vessel a FDPSO (Floating, drilling, production, storage, off-loading). It will have the capability to carry out well head installment, intervention and decommissioning. However, this plan has been abandoned. ATP Oil and Gas now plan to drill an appraisal well on the field using Transocean Artic III. The AGR Tracs\' historical CPR estimate for Skipper is 26.2 MMBbls 2C resources, using a 19% recovery factor. The secondary well objective is to drill two mapped reservoir structures beneath the Skipper oil field in the Lower Dornoch and Maureen formations, in which the CPR authors have mapped structures which could contain an additional 46 MMBbls of oil in place. If oil is present in these structures these accumulations would be co-developed with Skipper in line with the operator\'s hub strategy.
Operators:
Independent Oil and Gas: Operator with 100% interest
Contractors:
Transocean: 2013, Drilling contract using Transocean Artic III. 2015, rig contract with to procure the Transocean John Shaw semi-submersible rig to drill the Company’s fully funded appraisal well. Also in 2016, Transocean was awarded a contracted by IOG for the Sedco 704 semi-submersible drilling rig for the drilling of the appraisal well on Skipper.
Baker Hughes: Contract for the provision of oilfield services on the project. The additional Baker Hughes work to evaluate the prospectivity beneath the Skipper discovery and also to evaluate other Southern North Sea (SNS) prospects and discoveries including Truman, Harvey, Hambleton, Tetley & Rebellion is expected to start once the final report is completed and subject to IOG’s funding.
AGR: Well Management contract
GE Oil and Gas: Contract to provide wellheads and related equipment for the Skipper well and additional subsea equipment for the subsequent Skipper development. GE has approval to provide a US$3.4 million loan to part fund the Skipper appraisal well.