Deltic Energy completes 3D survey after Cairn farm-out

Natural resources investment company Deltic Energy announced on Tuesday that the 3D seismic survey over licence P2428 and its surrounding areas was now complete.

The AIM-traded firm announced the start of the survey on 10 September, following its farm-out agreement with Cairn Energy on 12 August.

It said the seismic vessel, under contract to ION Geophysical, was mobilised to site to acquire around 680 square kilometres of new 3D seismic data over the Plymouth Zechstein Reef prospect and surrounding areas on licence P2428.

Acquisition of the 3D seismic data was completed on 21 November, and the vessel would now be demobilised back to its home port.

The company said the data collected would now be processed by ION to pre-stack depth migration (PSDM), with the final results expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2022.

Under the farm-out agreement, Cairn was responsible for 100% of the costs of the seismic acquisition, processing and associated work programmes up to the point at which a positive well investment decision was made.

Following completion of the farm-out with Cairn, Deltic now held a 40% non-operated interest in licence P2428.

The licence contains the key Plymouth prospect, a large Zechstein carbonate build-up, which is analogous to Deltic's Pensacola Prospect and the Crosgan discovery.

Further upside on the block was associated with the Cupertino and Richmond prospects, Deltic added, which would also be further evaluated using the newly-acquired 3D seismic data.

“Successfully completing the acquisition of this new 3D seismic data represents another important step forward as we further progress this highly prospective licence with Cairn towards future drilling,” said chief executive officer Graham Swindells.

“The results of this high quality modern 3D seismic survey are expected to significantly enhance our understanding of the multiple gas prospects on P2428 and will be key to de-risking future drilling on this licence.”

At 1449 GMT, shares in Deltic Energy were down 1.95% at 1.96p.