Northern Petroleum says that the Cygnus prospect offshore Italy has now been mapped as an estimated unrisked prospective resource of up to 790 million barrels of recoverable oil within Northern’s 100% owned F.R39.NP permit. The prospect is adjacent to and up-dip of the producing Aquila oil field. This prospective resource estimate is based upon the Cygnus prospect sharing a common oil water contact with Aquila. The work was undertaken by ERC Equipoise Ltd (“ERCE”). Northern’s mapping of the available 2D seismic data has not found a separation or barrier from the producing Aquila oil wells.

The ERCE work was commissioned in January this year, following the publication of previously undisclosed well data relating to the Aquila oil field in an environmental submission by its operator, ENI S.p.A (“Eni”). The Aquila wells are located in the production concession adjacent to permit F.R39.NP. It is the knowledge of the deeper oil water contact in those wells that increases the estimated prospective resources of the Cygnus prospect if it is proven to have the same oil water contact as the Aquila oil field.

The prospect trap for Cygnus is predominantly stratigraphic with the same reservoir as the Aquila field, consisting of Cretaceous resedimented carbonates derived from the Apulian platform. In their estimates ERCE recognise that it is possible for the Aquila field to be in charge communication with the Cygnus prospect and therefore have a common oil water contact with the Aquila field. This results in a High (P10) case of 978 million barrels, with 790 million barrels in Northern’s permit F.R39.NP.

Tags: Northern Petroleum