I don't think that Encana's tactics on Buzzard have anything much to do with unitisation. They have what looks like the best 3d seismic team in the business, are experts at finding stratigraphic traps, and naturally want to use these advantages to their maximum extent. They therefore adopt a policy of maximal secrecy.
Bomfin discusses the position of some of the wells. It might be an idea to review all the wells drilled on Buzzard. To make full sense of the exploration programme you really need a copy of the Seismic map of the field that Pan Canadian put out in 2001, during an Investor Presentation, I believe by David Tuer. This, headed 'Buzzard Appraisal Program', is no longer easily obtainable; indeed I believe that Pan Canadian were angry that it went out at all. The exploration programme has been structured to confirm the accuracy of this map, which was put out immediately after the discovery well, 20/6/3.
The wells are:
20/6/3 - probably the approximate location of the future 20/6 platform.
20/6/3z - a sidetrack from the discovery well drilled 1.5 kms to the east, towards the eastern edge of the field; The actual boundary is marked as the oil/water contact line (OWC) on the seismic map, but apparently 20/6/3z did not reach it. The ground rises east to west, so the oil boundary on the west will be the gas/oil contact line that is not marked on the map.
19/10/1 - drilled 2.9 kms west of 20/6/3
19/10/1z - sidetrack, almost certainly towards the east. This was designed to find the western oil boundary. We know that the oil column is at least 750 feet. I guess that this boundary was a about 0.5 to 1 km east of 19/10/1.
20/6/4 - drilled 2.1 kms north of 20/6/3. This was the most prolific well so far. A new oil bearing level was discovered, and the flow rates were far higher than 20/6/3. At this point Pan Canadian/Encana stopped giving out serious information and stopped testing wells. I suspect this was because they realised that the whole thing was getting too big.
20/6/4z - a sidetrack north into 20/1. If you look on the Buzzard Appraisal Map the boundary between 20/6 and 20/1 is about 6.5 cms from the bottom of the map area.
20/6/5 - 2.0 kms ENE of 20/6/4. This well was to establish the OWC line precisely, which 20/6/3z probably failed to do.
20/1/3 - 3.7 kms NNW of 20/6/5. This well was to establish the western part of the northern boundary of Buzzard.
20/1/4 - This well is south of 20/1/3. It was designed, I suspect, to determine the position of one of the future platforms, the one in 20/1.
20/6/6 - drilled south of 20/6/3 in order to determine the southern boundary of Buzzard. If everything is in accordance with the map this shoulld have been drilled 2 kms south of 20/6/3
So in all there are 10 wells and sidetracks, and not 8 as the partners pretended. Many of these wells were drilled to establish the boundaries of the field, and not to find oil. Very approximately we can say that excluding 'North Buzzard' the area of the field towards the north east, which has not yet been explored, the oil bearing structure is about 8 kms north to south and about 4 kms west to east (although it does get wider than this on 20/1). This gives something more than 32 sq kms of oil bearing sand. (Refer to our previous submission.)
As for why the market has not realised all this and why the EDG share price is only about 100 when it should be very much higher, have a look at some of the price movements on the LSE over the past few years. Many of the people buying and selling shares these days should be locked up for their own good.
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