Partners in the well are Centrica Resources Norge (operator 28%), Petro-Canada Norge (30%) E.ON Ruhrgas Norge (15%) and North Energy (12%). The drilling operation, to be undertaken by the operator Centrica using the West Alpha semi-submersible drilling rig, is expected to take approximately 80 days.
Fogelberg (licence PL433) is a substantial oil prospect, located some 10km to the north of the producing Asgard oil Field (Smorbukk deposit). The structure is similar to the recent Statoil operated Morvin oil and gas discovery located 10km to the south west, which was successfully appraised in 2006 by Statoil and is expected to come on stream towards the end of 2010.
The well, 6506/9-2 S, will be drilled in a rotated fault block localised on the Halten terrace north of the producing Asgard field. Faroe was awarded this licence in 2007.
Graham Stewart, chief executive of Faroe Petroleum, said: “We explore on a portfolio basis to balance risk and reward in our drilling programme. With the Fogelberg prospect in Norway we are very pleased to have commenced our 2010 programme with the first of five scheduled high impact wells. These wells follow our highly successful exploration programme which resulted in the significant discoveries of Glenlivet and Tornado in the UK Atlantic margin last autumn.
“Fogelberg is the first of two wells we have scheduled for the Norwegian Sea this year. The second is the Wintershall operated Maria appraisal well (Faroe 30%) which is expected to commence in the second quarter. The other three 2010 exploration wells will be drilled in the deep water Atlantic margin, where we all operated by major oil companies. These substantial oil prospects are Anne Marie, in the Faroes (operated by Eni), Cardhu, in the UK (operated by BP) and Lagavulin, in the UK (operated by Chevron).”
