Well, it’s ‘here we go again’ for offshore west Sri Lanka, in the Mannar Basin, with the announcement of the latest Licensing Round by the Petroleum Development Authority of Sri Lanka. The blocks on offer (see map) cover a very similar coverage to those offered in the 2013 round and sit to the south of the former Cairn acreage and sub-commercial gas discoveries. No doubt there is play potential at multiple levels expressed by the seismic data. Upper Cretaceous clastic and volcanoclastic plays have been proven by Cairn’s drilling to the north. Additional opportunities will exist to the south in basin margin Cretaceous sands, as well as Tertiary turbidites and potentially even fractured basement.
Merlin conducted an in-country review of the blocks in 2013. Since then, SLB has acquired additional regional broadband 2D lines and has apparently reprocessed the entire dataset to PSDM. Essentially, however, the offered acreage lies untested and has never been licenced. An opportunity exists for an explorer with an appetite for frontier acreage. Whilst water depths start at 100m, many plays will occupy a far deeper water position and are likely to be the preserve of the bigger players, unless terms are offered that are less onerous than 2013, such as no firm DW well commitments!
If you are interested in checking this out, and leveraging Merlin’s prior experience, then please get in touch. We will be looking on in interest!
To read the full press release, click here.
