• Finder’s high-end reprocessing of the Big Buzz 3D in P2528 has revealed a large analogue to the nearby Buzzard Field, called the Whitsun Prospect
• Whitsun has gross mean prospective resources of 150 MMbbl and geological chance of success of 26%
• The Buzzard Field is the largest UK Continental Shelf oil discovery in the last 25 years and is estimated to contain over 1 billion barrels
• Detailed technical interpretation continues for other prospects within P2528 and P2527
• Finder has initiated a farmout process to secure an industry partner to fund the drilling of Whitsun 

Big Buzz 3D amplitude and seismic 3D visualization showing Whitsun Prospect analogue to giant Buzzard Oil Field

Commenting on the Whitsun Prospect, Managing Director, Damon Neaves, said:
“The Big Buzz 3D reprocessing has exceeded expectations. Finder has utilised the latest reprocessing and interpretation technologies to find subtle, stratigraphic traps analogous to the nearby giant Buzzard Field. The leading prospect emerging from this work is the Whitsun Prospect. Whitsun is large, with estimated mean prospective resource potential of 150 MMbbl gross. Undrilled prospects of this size are rare in mature basins and will likely attract significant interest from potential farmin partners. I congratulate the team for their excellent technical work and the vision that inspires them to generate compelling drilling opportunities like Whitsun.” 

Finder holds a 60% interest in P2528 and is the Licence Administrator. The remaining 40% is held by Dana Petroleum (E&P) Limited (Dana) who farmed into the Licence last year.

Licence location map showing key prospects and surrounding oil fields

The Licence is located within the Peterhead Graben, Central North Sea (CNS) immediately south of the Ettrick Sub-basin which contains the prolific stratigraphic traps of the Buzzard and Golden Eagle fields. Buzzard is often cited as one of the largest oil discoveries in the modern era in the North Sea with an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil. The Buzzard discovery (2001) demonstrates the potential of stratigraphic traps(1) to open up new and significant resource potential in mature regions like the CNS. Advances in seismic acquisition and interpretation technology have made a giant leap in identifying stratigraphic traps and the industry has experienced increasing success drilling stratigraphic traps as well as discovering, on average, larger field sizes (Westwood, 2020). 

Finder has completed detailed evaluation on Whitsun, the key prospect in the Licence and analogue to the Buzzard Field. The interpretation utilised the newly reprocessed Big Buzz 3D dataset. The Big Buzz 3D project took four vintage 3D surveys through a high-end processing flow to produce a final merged contiguous dataset over both licenses and surrounding analogous oil fields. The results have exceeded Finder’s expectations with significant improvement in imaging at the target objectives.

(1) A stratigraphic trap is a type of sealed geologic container capable of retaining hydrocarbons. They are formed by depositional, erosional or diagenetic processes which causes variations within the rock type. They are often associated with strata pinch-outs, unconformities or other geologic features. They differ to structural traps which are formed by deformation of strata such as faults and folds.

Comparison of legacy 3D seismic data and newly improved Big Buzz 3D data. Amplitude extraction of the Buzzard Sandstone member objective shows a significant improvement in noise reduction and geobody identification.

The Whitsun Prospect is a stratigraphic trap of the Buzzard Sandstone reservoir sealed by the proven Kimmeridge Clay Formation deep marine shales. Mapping of Whitsun on the Big Buzz 3D has shown similar seismic reflectivity and geometries, interpreted as mass flow channels and turbidites as the Buzzard Field area. Recently completed basin modelling simulations has shown that Whitsun is ideally located for hydrocarbon charge and is adjacent to the early mature source kitchen within the Peterhead Graben, which contains rich oil source rocks units within the Kimmeridge clay shales. The presence of an active source rock in the basin is proven by oil columns and shows in offset wells. 

Estimated prospective resources and the COS for Whitsun are shown below.

Whitsun Prospective Resources(1)

(1) These resource and risk estimates have been determined by Finder and should be considered in the context of the Technical
Appendix of this Announcement.

Detailed geophysical interpretation is also ongoing on other prospects within P2527 and P2528.

The Buzzard field development infrastructure consists of four linked platforms with wellhead facilities for 27 production wells and is operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). These facilities are located approximately 20 km to the north of Whitsun, which could be tied back in success.

STRATEGY AND FORWARD PLANS

The current term of P2528 (Phase A) extends to late 2024. Finder farmed out 40% of the Licence to Dana Petroleum in late 2022. Finder retained a 60% interest in the Licence in order to undertake a secondary farmout with the objective of securing funding for drilling.

Finder welcomes the initiatives recently announced in the 2023 Autumn Statement which provides greater clarity on the UK Government’s short, medium and long-term commitments to support investment in the oil and gas sector and include greater certainty around the expiry of the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) and the Investment Allowance (IA) which are expected to lead to greater stability and shore up investment in the sector. These announcements have positive implications for Finder’s farmout strategy in the UK.

With Whitsun emerging from our technical evaluation as the leading prospect in P2528 and given its large resource potential, Finder has initiated a farmout process to attract a partner to drill Whitsun.

Evaluation of additional prospectivity in P2528 and P2527 on the Big Buzz 3D reprocessed data is ongoing.

KeyFacts Energy: Finder Energy UK country profile