Energean to kick off Karish drilling programme

Greek player Energean Oil & Gas will start a drilling programme off Israel early next year, with first steel on the Karish floating production, storage and offloading unit due next month.

The London-listed company, which has also listed its shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), is on track to deliver its flagship Karish and Tanin gas development in the first quarter of 2021, it says.

Energean will cut first steel on the FPSO that will serve the project on 26 November at Chinese yard Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry.

Drilling of the Karish North well, which holds the potential to de-risk up to 1.8 trillion cubic feet of resources across Karish North and Karish East, will start in March, Energean said.

The company will then continue to de-risk the wider Israeli portfolio, which has 7.5 Tcf of gross prospective resources across the Karish and Tanin leases and blocks 12, 21, 22, 23 and 31.

Following Karish North, the Stena DrillMAX will drill three development wells into the Karish Main structure. These three wells will be the producers that deliver 4.2 billion cubic metres per year of gas sales into the Israeli domestic market from the first quarter of 2021.

“Energean is building its FPSO with a production and processing capacity of 8 Bcm per year. Current gas sales contracts, which account for all of its existing discovered resource, underpin the 4.2 Bcm per year of firm contracts signed to date, leaving 3.8 Bcm per year of spare capacity for the tieback of additional discoveries,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Energean will also advance work on its Greek portfolio, which includes several onshore and offshore fields.

Onshore at Ioannina and Aitoloakarnamia, Energean farmed out to Spain’s Repsol. Energean chief executive Mathios Rigas said the company’s approach in the “challenging area” is cautious because exploration could be very expensive.

“For now we are monitoring the progress of Respsol. Any decision on drilling is at least two years down the road,” he said. Currently, work is under way to acquire seismic data.

Nearby, it also holds the licence to develop the Katakolo offshore field, a lease that contains 10 million barrels of proven and probable reserves.

“We are evaluating all options here, to either take a final investment decision or bring a partner in,” Rigas said.

Offshore Greece, Energean is focused on Prinos, where three wells will be drilled next year.

In addition, under strategic plans to expand, the company holds two offshore blocks in Montenegro, where seismic will be shot later this year, or early next year, Rigas said.

“There is strong momentum at Energean as we prepare to begin our active Israeli work programme to deliver our flagship Israel gas project which will not only deliver significant shareholder value but provide competition and energy security to the Israeli domestic market. Alongside this in Greece we continue to focus on growing our low cost production,” he added.

Source: https://www.upstreamonline.com