The company on Friday said Guinea is the second well of a multi-well program being undertaken by operator Nexen using the Borgsten Dolphin semi-submersible drilling rig.

Nexen began drilling its first well in Block 20/1 in mid-October 2006.

The rig is still on location and is estimated to complete the current well in early-mid February.

Elixir said “sustained periods” of bad weather have adversely affected activities across the whole of the North Sea this winter and caused significant delays to Nexen’s operations.

“Although these slippages in spudding the Guinea well are frustrating, the circumstances are beyond Elixir’s control and will not incur cost penalties to the company,” it said.

Licence holders in the block are Elixir, Granby Oil & Gas, Nexen and Gas Plus Italiana SpA. Under the terms of the farm-in agreement between the licence holders, Elixir and Granby will be free-carried through the drilling of the Guinea well.

Located about 20km northeast of the Piper oil field, the prospect lies in about 150m of water and is a robust, four-way, dip-closed Palaeocene structure that lies on trend with fields such as Balmoral and Dumbarton.

On an unrisked basis, the Guinea structure is estimated to host potential resources of between 65 million (low case) and 120 million (high case) barrels of oil on Block 15/13b if hydrocarbons are present, with a mid-case estimate of 91MMbbl.

Elixir said the well is expected to take about 21 days to drill on a dry-hole basis.