DANA Petroleum, the Aberdeen-based oil and gas operator, said yesterday that first oil had been produced from the Ettrick field in blocks 20/2a and 20/3a in UK waters.
The Ettrick development was approved by the UK authorities in July 2006. Six wells were drilled subsequently between March 2007 and March 2009.
The field is being produced via the leased Aoka Mizu floating production vessel, which is designed to handle 30,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and 35million cubic feet of gas daily.
Dana said that in the next few months the field was expected to produce at rates of up to 20,000bpd (2,400bpd net to Dana) as the wells were tied into production.
Dana chief executive Tom Cross said: “Ettrick’s start-up adds to Dana’s oil production in one of our core areas, and brings our total number of producing fields to 35.”
Licensees in the field are Bow Valley Petroleum UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dana (12%), Nexen Petroleum (operator with 17.87%), Nexen Ettrick (61.86%), and Atlantic Petroleum (8.27%).
Meanwhile, oil company Xcite Energy, which is focused on the UK North Sea, said it had made significant progress with potential industry partners to advance to the next stages in the development of the Bentley field.
The company, which has its operational headquarters at Banchory, holds a 100% interest in block 9/3b, which contains Bentley, one of the largest undeveloped heavy-oil fields in the UK North Sea with estimated recoverable reserves of 80-166million barrels.
Xcite, which has no production so far, yesterday posted net losses of £145,000 for the three months to June 30, compared with a £281,000 deficit a year earlier.
Oil prices rose yesterday as equities rebounded after the previous session’s slump and the US dollar weakened. In New York, September crude gained $2.44 to settle at $69.19 a barrel, while in London, October Brent crude added $1.83 to $72.37.
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