Faroe Commences T-Rex Exploration Well in Norwegian Sea

Faroe Petroleum has announced that drilling has commenced on the T-Rex prospect (Faroe 30%), located in the Norwegian Sea.

The T-Rex prospect (Blocks 6506/12, 6406/2&3 part) is situated next to the Statoil operated Smørbukk fields on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea, an area where the Company made the Fogelberg and Maria discoveries in 2010.

The main targets in the T-Rex well (6406/3-9) are lower Cretaceous sandstones of the Lange and Lysing Formation, which have already been tested and flowed oil in thin sand intervals in well 6506/11-2 (drilled by Statoil in 1991) at the edge of the prospect. The sands are expected to improve in thickness and properties down-dip over the T-Rex prospect.

The drilling operation, to be undertaken by Maersk Oil as operator (70% participating interest), using the Transocean Winner drilling rig, is expected to be completed early in the New Year, 2012.

The T-Rex licence was awarded to Faroe Petroleum in the Norwegian APA (Awards in Predefined Areas) 2006 Licensing Round.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum plc, commented: 
“We are very pleased to announce the spudding of the second of our three 2011 Norwegian exploration wells. The T-Rex prospect is situated in a well-defined area and one in which Faroe has significant proprietary experience. The well is a potential play opener in this prolific region with considerable follow up potential. 

In the meantime drilling also continues on the sidetrack to the recent Butch discovery, to appraise for additional volumes of oil further down on the large salt-induced structure, in order to locate the oil water contact. 

The Norwegian Kalvklumpen exploration well is also expected to spud in December, making this a particularly exciting period in our exploration programme.”