Repsol Spuds Darwin Well

Northern Europe-focused junior Faroe Petroleum reported Monday that Repsol has spud the Darwin exploration well in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.

Repsol, the operator with a 20-percent stake in Darwin, is using the Transocean Barents (UDW semisub) rig to drill the well.

Darwin is located approximately 37 to 50 miles southwest of Statoil's Skrugard and Havis oil discoveries. Several targets have been identified from 3D seismic data, and the well is designed to test the main Darwin prospect and contribute towards further de-risking of the potential in the remainder of production license 531.

According to estimates, Darwin potentially holds one billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Faroe Chief Executive Graham Stewart commented in a statement:

"We are very pleased to announce the spudding of this high impact wildcat well which is our first in the highly prospective Barents Sea. This well is located in the promising western part of the Barents Sea - an area where a major breakthrough was achieved in 2011 with the giant Skrugard oil discovery.

"We have an active 2013 exploration drilling programme which includes several high impact exploration wells including Novus (Norwegian Sea) and two Butch wells (Norwegian North Sea)."

Faroe has a 12.5-percent stake in Darwin, while other partners in the well include Talisman Energy Norge, Marathon Oil Norge, RWE Dea Norge, Det norske Oljeselskap and Concedo.

Faroe is also currently awaiting results from another frontier well, North Uist, located west of Scotland.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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