Cairn has completed the SNE-1 North exploration well (Sirius prospect), located c.15km north of the original SNE-1 discovery. The well reach TD 2,837m and was completed ahead of schedule. A 24m gross hydrocarbon column was encountered across three intervals with 11m net condensate and gas pay in the primary objective and 4m net oil pay in the secondary objective.
A full set of oil, condensates and gas samples were recovered to surface from the 500 series sands, the same sand series that contributes the bulk of volumes in the main SNE field. The oil is slightly lighter at 35˚ API (vs. 32˚ API in SNE).
Further work will be required to establish the size and commerciality of the discovery, although FAR has assigned 294mmbbl of mean recoverable resources. The find has positive connotations for the block demonstrating further hydrocarbon potential to the north of the block. The well will now be plugged and abandoned and concludes the five well 2017 drilling campaign and the Stena DrillMAX rig will be released.
