Abstract
Abstract Fractured crystalline basement reservoirs (basement) on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) have been underexplored. Over the last 12 years, Hurricane Energy has deliberately set out to explore basement potential by exploring and appraising the Rona Ridge, West of Shetland; and the Rona Ridge Lancaster Field is now being progressed towards being the first UK basement field development. The Norwegian basement play is also recognized as a potentially material resource through serendipitous oil discoveries, with the 16/1-15 well, drilled in 2011, being the first successful full-scale basement test on the NCS. Building on this success, the 2018 Rolvsnes appraisal well (16/1-28 S) has demonstrated the significant basement potential of the extensive Utsira High and confirmed the materiality of a Norwegian basement play. The Rona Ridge and Utsira basement discoveries are used as a comparison with two other, yet to be evaluated, prospective basement plays on the NCS, with the objective of establishing technical subject areas where future UKCS and NCS collaboration would aid in accelerating understanding of the UKCS–NCS basement play.
Highlights
In this paper, the term ‘basement play’ refers to a petroleum play in which the reservoir is a crystalline crustal rock with an igneous protolith that hosts a natural network of hydraulically conductive fractures
The Rona Ridge and Utsira basement discoveries are used as a comparison with two other, yet to be evaluated, prospective basement plays on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), with the objective of establishing technical subject areas where future UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and NCS collaboration would aid in accelerating understanding of the UKCS–NCS basement play
We review known basement plays in the UK Continental Shelf and the Norwegian Continental Shelf (UKCS and NCS, respectively) before going on to examine and compare/contrast their known geological characteristics and evolution through time
Summary
ROBERT TRICE1*, CECILE HIORTH2 & ROBERT HOLDSWORTH3 1Hurricane Energy plc, The Wharf Abbey Mill Business Park, Lower Eashing, Godalming, Surrey GU7 2QN, UK 2Spirit Energy, Veritasveien 29, PO Box 520, 4003 Stavanger, Norway 3Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
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