Operations were concluded at the Rubin 1 NFW on 5 January 2018, with the Noble "Globetrotter II" drillship en route to port at Varna. Operator Total reported it was spudded in the 1-21 Han Asparuh licence on 23 September 2017, scheduled to take at least three months. It was drilled in 1,300 to 1,600m WD in the western Black Sea from a well location 14km NE of the successful Polshkov 1 NFW, which was concluded on 5 September 2016 having identified a play opening oil discovery in the Oligocene. Polshkov 1 is located in 1,924m WD, and was the first truly deepwater exploration well drilled offshore Bulgaria. It is understood to have reached TD below 5,500m, short of the 7,000m original PTD, although a shallower depth was expected. The Polshkov Ridge was identified as having high exploration potential with a number of syn-rift and post-rift Cenozoic play types identified overlying Mesozoic carbonate fault blocks. The 1-21 Han Asparuh licence covers 14,220 sq km and was awarded to an OMV-led consortium in August 2012, with 7,740 sq km of 3D and 3,000km of 2D acquired during 2013. Total took over operatorship on 1 April 2014 ahead of the drilling programme. On 12 April 2017 the Bulgarian Government extended the licence by 135 days. The acreage was previously held under the Varna Deep licence awarded to OMV in 2002 when reprocessing of vintage seismic and acquisition of new 2D and 3D surveys was undertaken before the licence was finally relinquished in 2008. Han Asparuh is operated by Total with 40% equity in partnership with OMV (30%) and Repsol (30%) and is valid until January 2018.
Rubin 1 NFW in the 1-21 Han Asparuh licence P&A results n/a