Discover Exploration is an unlisted, geology led exploration company headquartered in London and specialising in deepwater petroleum systems.

The Company has solid industry relationships and is working with reliable, well financed and proven partners to build a balanced portfolio of exploration assets with both oil and gas potential, concentrating on young emerging basins.

History

Discover Exploration was founded in 2012 by the former management team of Cove Energy (sold in 2012 to Thailand's PTTEP for US$1.9 billion).

Discover's initial funding came from ONH, the holding company of Oranje-Nassau Energie (now ONE-Dyas), the largest privately-owned Dutch E&P operating company.

In 2013, CIEP (Carlyle International Energy Partners), a US$2.5 billion fund managed by The Carlyle Group, made a majority investment in Discover. Carlyle is a global alternative asset manager with US$222 billion of assets under management across 360 investment vehicles (as of 30 June 2019).

Since 2012, Discover has acquired upstream oil and gas assets in 5 countries across 3 continents. In 2018-2019, Discover acquired 2 privately-owned oil and gas companies: Hansa Hydrocarbons (from Avista Capital Partners) and Bahari Resources.

Overview of operations

NETHERLANDS

GEms4Quads
GEms is a well-defined low risk prospectivity in the multi-tcf basal Rottliegends play. A first exploratory well in the summer of 2017 indicated the presence of natural gas.

Location and Geology: The GEms area, named for its location as the gateway to the Ems estuary, is located south of the 4Quads asset. GEms is an extension of the basal Rotliegend play recognised in both the 4Quads and H&L Blocks immediately to the north. 

The GEms area is situated approximately 20km north of the island of Schiermonnikoog offshore Netherlands and its eastern boundary follows the German-Dutch median line, confirmed by the supplementary Ems-Dollart Treaty executed in October 2014. The water depth ranges from 10m to 30m.

The prospectivity identified in the GEms area is the Lower Rotliegend Findorf play of the Elbe sub-group. The reservoir interval in this area is younger than the 4Quads and H&L Blocks Havel Sandstones but bears many similarities. The reservoir consists predominantly of fluvial and aeolian facies deposited in topographic lows related to the Base Permian Unconformity, sourced from the Lauwerszee Trough to the south.

Several wells within the region have encountered the Findorf Sandstone interval up to 35m in thickness. Historically the key risk in the GEms area was considered to be reservoir development. However, proprietary seismic inversion of the released 3D volumes have enabled the reservoir interval at the wells to be calibrated to the seismic volumes and the sands mapped directly. As a result, a number of structurally simple low risk prospects have been identified within the GEms acreage.

The first exploratory well N05-01 took place in the Ruby gas field and resulted in the Ruby gas discovery in September 2017. The well was the first well in the area to be drilled on 3D seismic and proved reservoir can be discriminated on seismic and de-risks the play fairway. The N05-1 exploration well encountering gas in the target basal Rotliegend sandstones. The well further appraised the reservoir distribution and delineated the structure with a downdip geological side-track which also encountered gas.  The reservoir interval was cored throughout and 24m of net sand was encountered with high permeability.  This was confirmed by the DST in the vertical well which was flow tested at a maximum sustained flow rate of 53 million standard cubic feet per day, which was the limit of surface equipment. The results of the well exceeded pre-drill expectations.

A second exploratory well N07-04 was spudded in February 2018 targeting the Tanzanite prospect. 

Equity Interests: Discover, through its wholly owned subsidiary Hansa Hydrocarbons Limited, participates in 3 exploration licences and one production licence in the GEms area.

Licence Status: The N04, N05 and N08 exploration licences have a five-year term and the N07c production licence a nineteen-year term. The three exploration licences have been granted with a common work programme with drill or drop decisions after three years. 

The first GEms exploration well N05-01, drilled using the Paragon Prospector 1 jack-up rig, was operated by ONE on the cross-border Ruby prospect in 2017.

Various export options are under investigation for the Ruby discovery to determine the economic viability of the gas accumulation. There is extensive offshore gas production infrastructure in the vicinity which could facilitate the processing and export of GEms gas, including that from any future discoveries. Should a development take place, the necessary plans and activities will first require regulatory approvals from the authorities with the appropriate public consultation process. The proximity of the potential developments in the 4Quads area to the north and the H&L area to the east of the GEms area presents the opportunity upon success for strategic synergies for optimising development and infrastructure schemes for the play and region as a whole.

If it turns out that gas can be successfully and economically extracted from the gas fields, the relevant permits will be applied for. An Environmental Impact Report (EIA) will be drawn up for this purpose, which must be presented with the application. It is expected that the total permit process will take several years before any gas extraction can be started.

GERMANY

GeldsackplateLicence B20008/71 (“H&L Blocks”)
Geldsackplate is a well-defined low risk prospectivity in the multi-tcf basal Rottliegend play.

Location and Geology: The Geldsackplate licence forms part of the greater GEms area (Gateway to the Ems) together with the adjacent N04, N05, N07c and N08 licences offshore the Netherlands.  GEms is an extension of the basal Rotliegend play recognised in both the 4Quads and H&L acreage immediately to the north.

The GEms area is situated approximately 20 km north west of the island of Borkum offshore Germany and its western boundary follows the German-Dutch median line, confirmed by the supplementary Ems-Dollart Treaty executed in October 2014. The water depth ranges from 10m to 25m. Directly adjacent to the west are the Dutch GEms N05 and N08 licence areas where Discover is a joint venture participant with Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE) and Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN). The Geldsackplate licence is bounded to the north and north-west by the H&L and 4Quads licence areas.

The prospectivity identified in the GEms area is the Lower Rotliegend Findorf play of the Elbe sub-group. The reservoir interval in this area is younger than the 4Quads and H&L Havel Sandstones but bears many similarities. The reservoir consists predominantly of fluvial and aeolian facies deposited in topographic lows related to the Base Permian Unconformity, sourced from the Lauwerszee Trough to the south.

Several wells within the region have encountered the Findorf Sandstone interval up to 35m in thickness. Two wells within the Netherlands GEms licence area encountered the Findorf reservoir but were located sub-optimally for reservoir development at the distal end of the facies and consequently, historically the key risk in the GEms area was reservoir development. However, propriety seismic inversion of the released 3D volumes has enabled the reservoir interval at the wells to be calibrated to the seismic volumes and the sands mapped directly. As a result, several structurally simple low risk prospects have been identified across the GEms acreage. The Ruby gas discovery in September 2017, was the first well in the area to be drilled on 3D seismic and proved reservoir can be discriminated on seismic and de-risks the play fairway.

Licence Status: The Geldsackplate licence was awarded in June 2015. The licence has an initial three-year term with a drill or drop decision at the end of the term. The drill extension option was exercised with the licence extended for a further two years to 30 June 2020.

The Ruby discovery extends across the N04, N05, N08 and Geldsackplate licences in the Dutch and German North Sea sectors respectively in a water depth of 28m. The N05-1 well was drilled as a joint well between the N05 and Geldsackplate licence groups.  The well was operated by ONE and drilled with the Paragon Offshore Prospector-1 rig, which moved off location on 30 August 2017.

In the event of development, gas would most likely be evacuated via the existing subsea T-piece in the NGT pipeline, approximately 20 km to the south west. This would avoid the need for any beach crossing on the Waddenzee islands. The proximity of the potential developments in the 4Quads area to the north and the H&L area to the east of the GEms area presents the opportunity upon success for strategic synergies for optimising development and infrastructure schemes for the play and region.

Several further drilling locations have been matured for exploration drilling following the Ruby discovery successfully opening this basal Rotliegend play. Permitting and planning for drilling the Diamant and Ruby South East prospects are on the way with further exploration drilling planned in Q4 2019/Q1 2020.

COMOROS

Map source: KeyFacts Energy

Blocks 35, 36 & 37
Blocks 35, 36 & 37 are situated in water depths of 2,000+ meters and outboard of Mozambique's offshore Rovuma Areas 1 and 4 where in 2010-2012 ca. 200 Tcf of gas in place was discovered, the world's largest gas discovery in decades.

Despite the proximity to these significant hydrocarbon resources, the Comoros are unexplored: no oil and gas wells have ever been drilled in the country.

Operations: Following ratification of the PSC in 2014, Discover Exploration undertook a range of exploratory studies incl. the acquisition of 3,900+ km of 2D seismic data.

In 2019, Discover farmed-out to Tullow Oil plc (incl. operatorship).

The partnership will acquire a large 3D seismic survey starting August 2019, the first ever in the Comoros.

Drilling of the first exploration well could occur in 2021.

Prospectivity: Based on the exploratory studies undertaken to date, the prospectivity of blocks 35, 36 & 37 is very significant.

Blocks 35, 36 & 37 are outboard of Mozambique's offshore Rovuma Areas 1 and 4, where ca. 200 Tcf of gas in place was discovered. Anadarko, ExxonMobil, Eni, CNOOC and Mitsui (and others) are currently building a multi-train onshore LNG plant and a floating LNG facility to monetise those significant gas resources.

In a CPR (Competent Persons Report) from 2018, ERCE, the UK-based independent energy consulting group, estimated that 2 partly stacked prospects in blocks 35, 36 & 37 together contain gross mean unrisked prospective resources of circa 7.1 billion barrels of oil (+1.1 Tcf of associated gas) in an oil case or 49 Tcf of non-associated gas (+2.3 billion barrels of condensate) in a gas case.

NEW ZEALAND

Map source: Discover Exploration

PEP 38264
PEP (Petroleum Exploration Permit) 38264 is situated in water depths of ca. 1,350 meters in the Canterbury Basin, off the Eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island.

The Canterbury Basin is largely underexplored. Several wells have proven the petroleum system but no commercial accumulations have yet been discovered.

New Zealand offers attractive fiscal terms, in a stable regulatory environment and with a transparent government.

Operations: The partnership has committed to drill one exploration well before October 2021.

Overall, the Canterbury Basin will see greater exploration activity: OMV and Mitsui are committed to drill the adjacent PEP 50119 in 2020. New Zealand Oil & Gas and Beach Energy are envisaging drilling the adjacent PEP 52717 as well.

Prospectivity: The Canterbury basin has an active petroleum system and exploration of PEP 38264 offers significant upside potential.

Based on the latest 3D seismic survey and the Caravel-1 well results, the partnership has mapped multiple large (up to 600 km² closures) 4-way structural traps (AVO/EEI supported) with P-mean prospective resources of multi-billion barrels of oil equivalent. Regional studies & 3D basin modelling suggests potential for oil in addition to gas and liquids.

They consist of transgressive shoreface/paralic sandstones draped over large 4-way closure complexes. Both are adjacent to thick mature pre/synrift source kitchens, providing excellent access to hydrocarbon charge. The prospects have 100-200 m shale prone seal intervals. In addition, at least 6 other leads have been mapped.

LEADERSHIP / CONTACT

• Michael Blaha Chief Executive Officer
• Michael Nolan Chief Financial Officer
• Alexander Mollinger Chief Operating Officer
• Joseph English Exploration Manager
• Paul Griggs Corporate Development Director
• Desmond Crichton General Counsel
• Thomas Fridrich Commercial Advisor

London office
33 Cavendish Square, 10th floor, London W1G 0PW, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 3008 5260
Email: info@discover-exploration.com

Dublin office
18 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)166 24351

Discover Exploration company/country profiles  Netherlands   l   Germany   l   Comoros   l   New Zealand

KeyFacts Energy hold a global database comprising over 500 Oil & Gas company profiles. For more details, contact us.