Shell Strikes Out In Black Sea
Shell has failed to find commercial volumes of oil and gas at a wildcat well off the shore of Bulgaria, its venture partner, Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, confirmed on July 18.
The Anglo-Dutch major started drilling the Khan Kubrat-1 well at the deepwater Block 1/14 in early April. In an earnings report, Woodside said the well had reached its target depth of 3,327 metres in late May but identified only “non-commercial hydrocarbon shows in target reservoirs.”
“The well was plugged and abandoned as planned. Further studies are being undertaken to inform future activities in the block,” it said.
Block 1/14 lies in waters up to 2,000 metres deep and spans almost 7000 km2 of Bulgaria’s Black Sea shelf.
Shell had been hoping to replicate the success of France’s Total, which reported a major oil find off Bulgaria in 2016. Large gas discoveries have also been made in the Romanian and Ukrainian sectors of the Black Sea. Shell sold a 30% stake in Block 1/14 to Woodside in 2018, followed by a 20% share to Spain’s Repsol earlier this year.