Dec 21, 2011

The Oil Drum | A Monster From The Deep

With relatively little fanfare on the international stage Lundin Petroleumand Statoil (and partners) have just recently, jointly discovered one of the largest oil fields ever found in the North Sea. The Aldous Major South - Avaldsnes discovery on the Utsira High structure is currently estimated to contain 1.7 to 3.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The astonishing thing about this discovery is that it has lain undiscovered in a mature oil province for so long providing ample encouragement for explorers to go on exploring.

The recoverable resource estimates have grown with every well drilled and with a new delineation well spudded on 28th November, further news on the size of this giant is expected early January.

Figure 1 Oil fields can often be imagined as sub-terainian hills, draped in mudstone (the seal) and partially filed with oil saturated sandstone.This 3D image shows the Avaldsnes and Aldous Major South discoveries are in all likelihood part of the same giant field.

This post is joint with Rune Likvern. One of us (EM) owns common stock in Lundin Petroleum.