i3 Energy announces that the North Sea Transition Authority ("NSTA") has extended the Second Term of the P2358 Licence for a period of 18 months, so that it will end on 31st March 2026. The Third Term of the Licence is reduced by the same time-period. The area of the Licence has been reduced to encompass the Serenity field only.

Majid Shafiq, CEO of i3 Energy plc, commented:
"i3 is very pleased that the NSTA has extended the Second Term of the Licence, which will allow the company more time to evaluate development options for the Serenity field."

Map source: KeyFacts Energy

Serenity Oil Discovery 

In October 2019, the Serenity 13/23c-10 well was successfully drilled on the Company's 100% owned Serenity prospect and is an oil discovery, with preliminary well results that are consistent with i3 Energy's pre-drill estimate of 197 MMbbls STOIIP for the entire Serenity closure within the Company's licence area.

The Liberator 13/23c-9 well findings have now been integrated with recently acquired seismic data, resulting in Liberator remapping as follows:

• Phase I development area to target 63 MMbbls STOIIP via up to 4 wells with the Company's revised expected recoverable reserves of 23 MMbbls
• Phase II prospective area to target 396 MMbbls STOIIP through future exploration drilling

Following i3's 2019 drilling campaign at Serenity and Liberator, the Company is now preparing for a mid-2020 appraisal programme to delineate the fields which the Company believes could contain more than 600 MMbbls P50 STOIIP. 

Well and fluid data from the Serenity 13/23c-10 discovery well encountered sweet, 31.5° API crude in 11 feet of upper Captain oil-bearing sands. The measured oil column on structure, observed through pressure data, was 604 feet true vertical depth (TVD). If the Serenity and neighbouring Tain oil field are in communication as i3 expects, then this infers an oil column height of 1124 feet TVD. On the basis of information recovered from the discovery well, the Company retains its pre-drill estimate of 197 mmbbls P50 STOIIP for Serenity. The Company expects the thickness of the upper Captain sands package to increase, potentially substantially, moving westward along structure, based upon a measured sand thickness of 115 ft true vertical thickness (TVT) immediately west of the Serenity accumulation in the 13/23a-7A well. The 13/23c-10 well has confirmed the strong commercial potential of the Serenity area, and reservoir model simulations demonstrate potential recovery factors above 60%.

Though Liberator wells 13/23c-9 and 13/23c-11 did not meet i3's expectations, the latter confirmed a migration path for hydrocarbons to move westward towards the "Minos High" where the upper Captain sands package is estimated to have a thickness of  circa 200 ft TVT above the oil-water contact. Post-drill mapping of the entire Liberator structure still shows potential in-place resources above 400 MMbbls.

With the highly successful Serenity discovery and remaining potential at Liberator, the Company has begun planning a mid-2020, multi-well appraisal programme and is simultaneously conducting a farm-down process of its licences to potentially fund the 2020 drilling campaign. The Company will continue working with its senior lenders on a development facility for its assets. Future drilling remains subject to funding and i3 will update the market on these endeavours in due course as material progress is made.

Serenity Farm-out
In August 2022, i3 Energy completed the farmout of a 25% working interest ("WI") in Block 13/23c North (Licence P2358) which contains the Serenity discovery, to Europa Oil and Gas. Under the terms of the FIA, Europa will fund 46.25% of the cost of the upcoming Serenity appraisal well up to a gross capped well cost of £15 million. Any well costs exceeding £15 million will be funded by the companies in proportion to their respective working interests.

Following this farm-out, i3 retains a 75% WI in Block 13/23c North (Licence P2358) and a 100% WI in Block 13/23c South (Licence P2358), which contains the Minos High Prospect and Liberator discovery.

KeyFacts Energy:  i3 Energy UK country profile