Integrated Approach for Fractured Basement Characterization – the Lancaster Field, a Successful Case Study in the UK

Hurricane Energy, founded in 2005, is a leading O&G company in fractured basement exploration in the UK. Hurricane currently operates licences in West of Shetland with a 100% working interest and, while having further exploration and appraisal opportunities, the company is focused on bringing the Lancaster Field (37 MMbbl 2P reserves & 486 MMbbl 2C resources) into development with an Early Production System (EPS).

Throughout a successful drilling campaign since 2009 to date, Hurricane Energy has acquired a comprehensive, high-quality static and dynamic dataset using off-the-shelf technology, which is often not optimised for fractured basement reservoirs. However, by using the acquired data in innovative ways, Hurricane has been able to incorporate the recent characterization studies to update and calibrate the subsurface models in use to support a field development plan for the Lancaster Early Production System (EPS).

This paper summarizes the methodologies and workflows used by Hurricane Energy to integrate concurrently all the available interpreted field data to feed a sound high-resolution representative subsurface model of Lancaster which contributed to confirm an increased estimate of recoverable volumes, on a 2C basis, from 200 million barrels to just under 600 million.