from Kenny on the UK board...
The map you refer to on Page 10 of the latest presentation is for indicative rather than definitive purposes and the the detail is not to any scale so the appearance of A2 being shorter than A1 cannot be taken as fact. The contour ring lines are included to give an indication of the shape of the reservoir tor and the drill directions/lengths have been added to show that the 3 oil wells will terminate at roughly the same TVD which is indicated by each of them being on the same 'thicker' red contour line. In the case of drill #4 (gas well at NDC) the drilling time should certainly be quicker than the oil drills as there is no horizontal extension element involved and it targets the cap of the reservoir so the completion point will also be at a shallower TVD to that of the oil wells. On balance we should take the company's estimation of 80-90 days duration for each drill as a decent average guide. A1 took 85 days so they were spot on there but that will not always be the case as they cannot anticipate en route issues and variables such as weather. We should be mindful that A2 and A3 are being conducted during the seasons of weather extremes in the north sea so we're bound to experience operation suspensions, albeit for relatively short periods. A2 may already have had such weather extremes during mid November as indicated by very little north sea rig movement during that period. I've just had a quick read on Stockhouse and see that some are counting the days from notification of the A1 well test result as being the start of A2?!?? Although A2 didn't require a rig move the A1 well still had to undergo suspension followed by a drilling platform skid to a pre-defined position so that A2 could undergo set-up and spudding, all of which could not be achieved by merely working through a lunch break. Fingers crossed for no ops problems and we get news of a good A2 test result prior to christmas which will see us all in a happy mood over the holiday, during which time (with all going to plan) the Ensco 100 should have been moved the short distance (just 4km) to the NDC site and started our penultimate drill for Phase 1 Stella........weather permitting! ATB