New North Sea player Independent Oil and Gas has been given a major boost with an independent report verifying more than 300 billion cubic feet of proven gas reserves.
The competent persons report (CPR), released yesterday by ERC Equipose, confirmed 2P gas reserves of 303 billion cubic feet or 54 million barrels of oil equivalent
across the firm’s southern North Sea portfolio.
And chief executive Mark Routh said the fact that the assets are 100% owned and operated by IOG, including the export pipeline, means that the firm is setting its own pace on the developments – a quick one.
Mr Routh said: “Too many of my friends and colleagues in the industry have hit the wall because their coventurers were not funded or did not have the budget to proceed with the development.
“So by doing it this way, the contractors are very keen to keep us in the place where we own 100% and we are in control and we can make decisions very quickly.”
IOG is developing two gas hubs – Blythe and the Vulcan Satellies – which contain a total of five fields.
Peak production is expected to be 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Mr Routh said the independent verification of reserves was “vindication” of over a years work.
He added: “This involved the coming together of a lot of subsurface work and well design, which ERC then looked at and then made their own independent assessment of all that work and it’s come up with a number which we are very pleased with.
“Especially the fact that we are converting our contingent resources into reserves – not all of them but most of them – which is a very good result.
“This allows us to get to the next level in terms of talking about funding our portfolio.
“Our plan is to fund this development in stages rather than do it all in one go.”
Gas from the Vulcan Satellite and Blythe hubs will be exported via the Thames pipeline.
The firm acquired the 24 inch decommissioned pipeline earlier this year and Mr Routh confirmed last night that the deal was “nearly completed”.
It will be serviced by a pig or sphere launcher on the southern most asset on the Vulcan network – Southwark – which will keep the line free from liquids.
Mr Routh said: “This has all been enabled because we bought the Vulcan Satellites off the people who were selling it because they were stranded assets, there was no export route.
“However because we were doing the Blythe hub we identified the Thames pipeline as a potential route to market.”
Next up on the radar for IOG is the Harvey structure – which if successfully appraised would be developed as a tie-back to the Thames pipeline.
The Harvey CPR is due later this month, with a drill or drop commitment by the end of the year.