Oil and gas firm Parkmead has doubled its stake in the Polecat and Marten oil fields in the UK Central North Sea. 

The Polecat and Marten fields lie 20km east of the significant Buzzard field, and are located close to Parkmead’s large Perth-Dolphin-Lowlander (PDL) hub project in the Moray Firth area of the Central North Sea.

Polecat and Marten are jointly estimated to hold over 90 million barrels of oil in place and over 33 million barrels of “contingent resources.”

The stake increase has increased Parkmead’s total contingent resources by 39%, from 42.5 to 59.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. 

“The Polecat and Marten fields are located in Blocks 20/3c & 20/4a within Licence P.2218,” said the firm.

“Parkmead has acquired a further 50% of Licence P.2218, and now operates the licence with 100% equity.”

Parkmead executive chairman Tom Cross said: “We are delighted to have doubled our stake in these two oil fields, which significantly increases Parkmead’s contingent oil and gas resources by some 39%.

“Polecat and Marten could be highly valuable to Parkmead’s PDL project by contributing an additional 90 million barrels of oil in place to the already large oil and gas reserves base at PDL.”