Deltic Energy has announced that Capricorn Energy, its partner in five southern North Sea gas exploration licences, has decided to withdraw from the exploration joint venture (JV).
Following Capricorn’s decision, the UK North Sea-focused explorer said it will withdraw from three of the licences —P2560, P2561 and P2562—and relinquish them.
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In April this year, Capricorn announced plans to materially scale back all exploration operations outside Egypt and initiated the process for the divestiture of UK assets.
Deltic intends to continue with the licences P2567 (Cadence) and P2428 (Cupertino) due to the high prospectivity shown by the technical work programmes, which was completed by Capricorn on behalf of the JV.
The JV discovered and developed 17 carboniferous leads and prospects that were in P2567 and P2428 and had a combined gross P50 gas initially in place of more than 2.6 trillion cubic feet, Deltic noted.
Deltic hopes to secure an extension from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for the two licences as the current terms of P2567 and P2428 are set to expire in November 2023 and March 2024, respectively.
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By GlobalDataThe company plans to secure and grade discovered and matured prospects while trying to onboard a new partner or partners to support drilling operations.
Deltic Energy CEO Graham Swindells said: “While we would have preferred to continue in partnership with Capricorn on these exploration licences, Capricorn has recently changed strategic direction.
“Our extensive work together has advanced our understanding of the potential of the area, further demonstrated the excellent prospectivity present on the two most advanced licences and allowed us to focus on those licences showing excellent potential.”
