North Sea job prospects have been given a double boost with news of new oil finds by Faroe Petroleum and Statoil’s decision to locate a new headquarters in Aberdeen to create 700 oil and gas jobs.
Aberdeen based independent oil and gas explorer Faroe Petroleum announced success with two exploration wells that the company says have exceeded expectations. Gas and condensate has been discovered in the Solberg well, where it has a 20% stake, and a drill test on the PII Discovery Well in which it has a 25% stake showed a stable flow of 6,710 barrels of oil per day.
The Solberg well was started in February to assess the size of the adjacent Rodriguez discovery which was made in January 2013. Faroe said the preliminary resource estimate for the Solberg discovery was in the range of six to 25 million barrels of oil equivalent and the reservoir channels in both wells were expected to extend northwards into the Milagro licence where Faroe has a 30% share.
Faroe chief executive Graham Stewart said: "We will now work together with our licence partners to assess the total volumetric potential across Rodriguez, Solberg and Milagro to assess their combined commercial potential.
"Together with our notable recent discoveries on Snilehorn and Pil, Faroe's exploration successes provide clear vindication of our long-standing strategy to take material stakes in high-impact exploration prospects offering significant value to our shareholders."
Statoil’s selection of the Prime Four Business Park as the location for its operations centre for developing the Mariner Field, some 150 kilometres east of Shetland, confirms creation of 200 onshore and 500 offshore jobs. Production from Mariner is expected to last for 30 years from commencement in 2017.
