Stock image of an offshore drilling rig.

Engie farms-in to Dutch North Sea

LONDON, September 17, 2015 – GDF Suez E&P, part of French operator Engie, has farmed-in to four blocks in the Dutch North Sea along with UK exploration company Hansa Hydrocarbons. The farm-in will see a transfer of operatorship from Hansa Hydrocarbons to GDF Suez E&P, as well as a 30-percent interest in the licences for blocks G18, H16, H3 and N1 off the coast of The Netherlands in the North Dutch Sea.

In a press release provided on Thursday, Hansa Hydrocarbons stated that 3D-seismic survey data collected in 2014 of a 965-square-kilometre area over the four blocks will allow direct mapping of reservoir sands across a mega-enclosure. This data provides the main drive for exploration.

“This transaction is an important validation of our technical work and an endorsement of our strategy of pursuing material prospectivity in a mature basin. Together with the recently awarded N4, N5, N7c and N8 blocks immediately to the south, this emerging Basal Rotliegend play has the potential to be the most significant conventional gas resource remaining on the Dutch continental shelf,” Hansa Hydrocarbon’s CEO John Martin said in a press release.

The deal leaves Hansa Hydrocarbons and GDF Suez E&P both with 30-percent interests, and the remaining 40 percent with Dutch player EBN.