Blocks 15/23c, 15/24a, 15/28a, 15/29e and 15/30b - Bowmore AreaStratic holds a 15.0% working interest in blocks 15/23c, 15/24a, 15/28a and 15/29e (together P1465) and a 33.3% interest in block 15/30b (P1614). Nippon Oil Exploration and Production UK Limited NOEPUK) is the operator of all of the blocks. Stratic’s interest in blocks 15/23c, 15/24a, 15/28a and 15/29e was acquired in April 2007 in the UK 24th licensing round and is for an initial term of four years. The work programme offered by Stratic and its partners includes the acquisition of new seismic data and the drilling of two firm and two contingent wells. Stratic has the right to apply for an additional four-year term, subject to satisfactory completion of the work programme and evidence of the licensees’ technical and financial capabilities. The interest in 15/30b was acquired in the 25th licensing round in June 2009, with only a seismic reprocessing commitment. The blocks are located in the Outer Moray Firth area of the North Sea to the west of the existing Brenda and Balmoral fields and to the north of the Britannia field. Multiple prospects and leads have already been identified at a number of stratigraphic levels. A Jurassic gas condensate discovery, Bowmore, first drilled in 1990, is located in the awarded acreage along with a number of Palaeocene prospects and a deep basin floor play exists to the north of the existing Britannia field. The blocks are adjacent to the Bugle discovery to the west, appraised by Oilexco in 2008, now owned by Nexen and Premier Oil. The original Bowmore discovery well, 15/24a-4, was drilled in 1990 by Hamilton Brothers and flowed at a rate of 11 mmcfd of gas and 3,024 barrels of 47º condensate per day from an over-pressured Upper Jurassic reservoir. An appraisal well, 15/24a-9, was drilled by the current partners in 2009. The well was suspended untested, and declared a tight hole, restricting the public distribution of any well information by the partnership. This well was the first of the two commitment wells on this licence. The P1465 partnership has approved a budget for the abandoment of this well later in 2010. In February 2010, Nexen spudded the 15/23d-15 Bugle North appraisal well on the boundary between blocks 15/23c and 15/23d. The well was drilled as a joint well between two separate partnership groups and satisfied the second commitment well obligation on Stratic’s P1465 (Bowmore area) licence. The Bugle North well targeted the northern extension of the Bugle oil discovery that was appraised by the P815 group in 2008. The well was drilled by the Glomar Arctic IV semisubmersible drilling unit to a total depth of 15,145 ft md. On May 7, 2010 it was announced that Nexen, acting as operator, will plug and abandon the well.
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