Chinese oil company CNOOC has failed to unearth commercial quantities of hydrocarbons at the Glengorm South well in the UK North Sea.

Energean, a partner in the Glengorm project, said Thursday that "the Glengorm South appraisal well contained no commercial hydrocarbons."

"The existing Glengorm North discovery and the Glengorm Central appraisal well (expected to spud shortly) are considered to be independent of the Glengorm South appraisal well," Energean said. CNOOC is using the Prospector 5 jack-up rig, owned by Borr Drilling, for Glengorm drilling.

The Glengorm appraisal drilling is designed to test the size of the Glengorm gas/condensate discovery made by CNOOC back in early 2019. 

Norwegian energy intelligence firm said in 2019 that Glengorm was the largest discovery in British waters since 2008. Recoverable resources were at the time estimated at around 250 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Rystad then also said that a material discovery of the Glengorm size had not been seen in UK waters since Culzean was drilled in 2008.

“The proximity to infrastructure, the reported high-quality reservoir and follow-up potential all point to Glengorm becoming a large new field development on the UKCS,” Rystad Energy said at the time.

Total, a partner in the project, said in 2019 that the discovery was in water depth of about 80 meters, close to existing infrastructures operated by Total and offering tie-back possibilities, such as the Elgin-Franklin platform and the Culzean project.

Source - www.oedigital.com