Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Potential future exploration Promote opportunities, UK Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014 NW 154/1-11. Introduction SE TWT (s) Since 1999, the Department of Energy 1.0 4 and Climate Change (DECC) (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry) 7 1 has conducted Strategic Environmental 5 Assessments (SEAs) prior to offshore 13°W 7 licensing rounds. 2.0 ATLANTIC MARGIN 2Extension SEA7 lies within the Atlantic Margin 2 area, and its assessment was SCOTLAND NORTH SEA completed during 2007. 3 SEA7 incorporates Rockall Basin 3.0 Quadrants 127-132, 138-142, 147-154, 6 2 IRISH 157-165, 168-171 and 173-174, as well SEA as parts of the adjacent Outer Hebrides Completed SEAs 2ENGLAND km WALES Platform and Rockall High, plus parts of 4.0 SEA7: available for the Hatton Basin and Hatton High. licensing However, only the area to the east of SEA7: not available for licensing at 8 13°W is currently available for present licensing. Fig. 1 Areas potentially open for licensing in The remaining unlicensed acreage in the next offshore licensing round. Actual SEAs 1 to 6, and SEA8 will also be blocks on offer (including terms) and the available for licensing in the next timing of any Round will be announced on the offshore licensing round. DECC website www.og.decc.gov.uk. 25°W 20°W 15°W 10°W 5°W 0°E Iceland-Faroe The Rockall Basin has: Ridge Faroe-Shetland Escarpment Proven source rocks Steeply dipping Faroe ! pre-Tertiary reflectors Wyville-ThomsonIslands of Keser Neish (1993) Transfer !! Judd ! ! Proven hydrocarbon Transfer ! ! ! ! Continent-Ocean Boundary ! ! ! Basin ! ! Faroe-Shetland systems ! ! ! !! 60°N Proven traps Shetland Hatton High North-East ! Benbecula Rockall Basindiscovery ! Proven reservoirs in post- ! !! ! ! !! ! !! ! ! ! !! ! ! !! ! !! Hatton BasinFig. 7 !! ! ! ! rift and pre-rift plays: ! ! ! ! ! ! Hebridean Platform ! ! Platform ! ! ! ! ! - Benbecula ! ! ! Scotland ! Paleocene Rockall High !!! Gas discovery Synrift dipping Synrift prospect reflectors of Boldreel identified by Smith and Andersen (1994) et al. (1999) Dooish - Dooish (Irish Sector) Rockall Permo-Triassic and Middle Basin discovery HighHigh IgneousIgneous centre Jurassic Erris Basin 55°N Eastern limit of Corrib gas ! WaterWater depthdepth discovery Gas condensate basalt in Faroe- Slyne !! 0~10000~1000 mm ! Shetland Basin Basin ! ! ! ! ! England Southern limit of !! 1000~20001000~2000 mm ! thickthick basalt in Ireland 2000~30002000~3000 mm Rockall Basin LicensedLicensed blocksblocks Gas field/discovery (November(November 2013)2012) Fig. 2 Licensed areas and Oil field/discovery 27th27th RoundRound extant ! awardapplication (November block 2013) water depths across 27th Round potential 27th Round 250 km Rockall Basin applicationaward (November block 2012) 10°W 5°W 0°E Potential future exploration Promote opportunities, UK Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014 14°W 13°W 12°W 11°W 10°W 9°W 8°W 7°W 154/1-1 Faroe Bank Lousy High NW Channel Knoll SE W Ymir Ridge yville-Thomson TWT Faroes Sigmundur Ridge (s) 169 UK Drekaeya 175 174 60°N1.0 163/6-1A ? 164/7-1 Sula Sgeir 157 Darwin Hatton 158 159 160 161 164 West 165 High 162 163 Lewis 2.0 High West 164/25-2 Lewis North-East Basin Rosemary Bank 164/25-1Z Rockall 164/27-1 East Basin West George 164/28-1A George Bligh Darwin- 59°N Bligh 154/1-2 Geikie 153/5-1 High 154/3-1 3.0 North 154/1-1 Rockall Basin Fig. 5 148 149 150 151 154 155 147 2 km 152 153 West Flannan 4.0 Flannan Basin Geikie Basin 58°N Rockall High St.Kilda 137 Rockall 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 Anton Dohrn Outer Hebrides Platform East Rockall High Basin 57°N 127 Sea of the South Hebrides - 129 Little Minch 128 Rockall Basin 132/6- 1 Barra Basin Fig. 8 130 Basin 131 132/15- 1 Ronan UK Basin 132 133 134 135 Ireland Fig. 6 Hebrides Terrace Fig. 7 Stanton Basin Tertiary and Mesozoic/Palaeozoic on basement Igneous centre Modified after BGS 2007 & 2002 Cretaceous and older Mesozoic/Palaeozoic on basement High (top Paleogene lavas), little or no Tertiary cover Possible Cretaceous and older basin beneath lavas High, origin unknown 0 30 60 90 120 150 Jurassic and older Mesozoic/Palaeozoic on basement Fault Kilometres Permo-Triassic on basement Lava escarpment Fig. 3 Principal structural elements, Mapped limit of Paleogene Platform, including Palaeozoic basins, Paleogene lavas lavas within Rockall Basin Rockall Basin area Buried high (inferred basement high) Limit of SEA7 2. Structural Elements The Rockall Basin is a N-S to NNE-SSW trending graben lying between the Rockall High in the west, and the Outer Hebrides Platform in the east. The North-East Rockall Basin is separated from the Faroe-Shetland Basin to the north-east by the Wyville-Thomson Ridge. Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene igneous intrusions are present within the basin and on the bounding highs. Associated lavas and tuffs cover much of the basin, and older strata in large parts of the basin are obscured on seismic data by thick extrusive rocks. The oldest sedimentary rocks penetrated within the UK sector of the Rockall Basin are Early Cretaceous (South Rockall Basin well 132/15-1); however, Jurassic rocks are inferred from seismic interpretation to be present across at least the eastern part of the Rockall Basin (Spencer et al. 1999). Potential future exploration Promote opportunities, UK Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014 South Rockall North-EastNW North154/1-1 Rockall West Lewis West SELewis Basin Rockall Basin Basin High BasinTWT (s) Benbecula 132/6-1 132/15-1 153/5-1 154/1-1 164/28-1A 164/7-1 163/6-1A 154/3-1 164/25-2 164/25-1Z1.0 Sea Sea bed bed Sea Sea Sea bed bed Sea bed 2.0 Sea bed bed Sea bed Sea bed Sea 3.0 bed 2 km 4.0 Vertical scale 0 2000 ft Post-Eocene Basalt/tuff Eocene Dacite Paleocene Dolerite Cretaceous Basalt breccia Fig. 4 Distribution of sandstones in released UK Permo-Triassic Sandstone - volcanigenic exploration wells, Rockall Basin area. See Fig. 3 Sandstone/ Age unknown conglomerate Basement 3. Rockall Basin area wells Seven released hydrocarbon exploration wells have been drilled in the UK Rockall Basin, with two in the South Rockall Basin, four in the North-East Rockall Basin, and one in the North Rockall Basin. Two further wells were drilled on the adjacent West Lewis High and one in the West Lewis Basin. Two of these wells found hydrocarbons. The Paleocene post-rift play was proven by the discovery of gas in the Vaila Formation at well 154/1-1 (Benbecula discovery), and oil shows were found within the Vaila Formation in well 164/28-1A. However, the remaining five released Rockall Basin wells were dry holes. In the Irish sector of the South Rockall Basin, the Dooish gas condensate discovery (see Fig. 2) is reported to comprise Permian reservoir sandstones (Shannon et al. 2005). Thick Permo-Triassic sandstones were proven in the West Lewis Basin, and equivalent beds are likely to be present locally in the Rockall Basin, at least along its eastern margin. Quartzose sandstones were penetrated in the Paleocene sections of 5 of the UK Rockall area wells (Fig. 4). Volcanigenic sandstones with poorer reservoir potential make up the clastic component of the Paleocene at well 132/15-1. Wells 163/6-1A and 164/7-1 drilled through very thick Palaeogene volcanic sections, although this is probably due to their proximity to the Darwin igneous centre (Fig. 3). Eocene sandstones were penetrated in 7 of the 10 Rockall area wells. Potential future exploration Promote opportunities, UK Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014 NW SE NW NORTH-EAST ROCKALL BASIN154/1-1 SE TWT 1 (s) TWT (s) 1.0 2 WEST 2.0 LEWIS HIGH 3 3.0 Post-rift plays 4 1 Eocene mass- flow complex play: slope channel, 2 km proximal fan 4.0 channel and fan lobe stratigraphic traps cf. Tobermory 5 gas discovery, Faroe-Shetland Basin 10 km MC3D seismic data courtesy of PGS 2 Paleocene mass-flow NORTH-EAST ROCKALL BASIN complex play: slope channel, proximal fan 1 channel and fan lobe stratigraphic TWT traps e.g. (s) Benbecula gas discovery, NE Rockall Basin WEST LEWIS 2 Syn-rift and late Oligocene HIGH pre-rift plays Miocene to Recent 3 Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous basinal sand play: conjectural Eocene 1 3 Pre-rift plays Top Balder Fm 2 Paleocene to early Eocene 4 Permo-Triassic play: e.g. Dooish gas condensate discovery, Irish 3 4 4 4 Palaeozoic- basement play: Devono- Carboniferous Jurassic to Cretaceous and/or fractured (base conjectural) basement fault trap 5 cf. Clair Field, Intrusives Faroe-Shetland Basin Basement (Precambrian) 10 km Fig. 5 Seismic section and geoseismic interpretation across the North-East Rockall Basin. See Fig. 3 for location of section. 4. North-East Rockall Basin A range of pre-, syn- and post-rift plays are envisaged in the North-East Rockall Basin. Five hydrocarbon exploration wells have been drilled on the eastern margin of the basin (Fig. 3). The Paleocene post-rift play was proven by the discovery of gas in the Vaila Formation at well 154/1-1 (Benbecula discovery), and the occurrence of oil shows within the Vaila Formation in well 164/28-1A. However, wells 153/5-1 and 164/27-1 were dry holes. The remaining well has not been released into the public domain. Potential future exploration Promote opportunities, UK Rockall Basin United Kingdom 2014 5. Hebridean Margin Plays NW 154/1-1 SE (North east) TWT (s) Seismic data across the North east- 1.0 ern Rockall Basin reveals the po- tential for various styles of play along the basin margins.