In an update on appraisal well drilling at the Skipper oil discovery in the North Sea, Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) said observations during sampling confirm the oil is mobile in the reservoir.

Drilled to a depth of 3,860 ft, IOG said good quality reservoir condition samples were collected from the field and sent to Aberdeen for further analysis.

“The oil viscosity appears likely to be within the 50cP-150cP range expected by the IOG management, which is significantly better than the viscosity assumed in the Competent Persons Report (CPR) published by AGR Tracs in September 2013,” the company said in a news release. “If these oil properties are confirmed in the laboratory tests, which should be completed in September 2016, the development will require fewer wells than previous assumptions in the CPR thereby reducing the base case development costs.”

IOG’s next step is to drill the exploration prospects in the Lower Dornoch and the Maureen formations beneath the Skipper oil field, in which the CPR author has mapped structures that together may contain 46 million barrels of oil in place, the release said. Initial results of this phase are expected to before the end of August.

“The initial data acquired from the Skipper well, our first operated well, is an excellent result for IOG and operations proceed without any reported safety incidents,” IOG CEO Mark Routh said in a statement. “By retrieving the oil samples, the primary well objectives have been fulfilled and we have proved that the oil is moving in the Skipper reservoir.

“This is a significant step for IOG towards achieving the target of being a company with 100 MMBOE heading for development, in assets 100% owned as operator,” he added.

Unrelated to the reservoir, IOG said it encountered some difficulties after spudding on July 23 that required an early re-spud of the well and therefore an increased overall well duration. In addition, in the company said it experienced in early August a force 10 gale at the well location which caused a suspension of operations for almost 2 ½ days for safety reasons. The delays have resulted in an estimated increase in the operational phase of the well by approximately 13 days.

Offshore