Ithaca Energy suffered a slump in its share price yesterday after it reported production problems on the Athena field.
A blockage in one of four production wells is thought to be the cause of a sharp drop in output from Athena, 112 miles north-east of Aberdeen.
Ithaca, whose shares fell more than 13% to 95.5p, said it was evaluating remote-intervention methods to restore the restricted well to its full production potential of about 5,000 barrels of oil per day.
It added: “Testing has shown there are no issues with the integrity of the well or performance of the reservoir in the areas of the field drained by the well.
“Changeable flow rates achieved from the well during testing indicate that the restriction is likely attributable to a blockage in the production tubing.”
Ithaca said the three remaining wells were producing about 12,000 barrels of oil per day.
All four production wells and their processing plant are on the BW Athena floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
Canada-based Ithaca said last month it had started oil production from Athena, which is co-owned by Dyas UK, EWE Energie and Zeus Petroleum. In an operational update and second-quarter production report yesterday, the company said the focus since Athena’s startup had been on achieving full and stable production plus assessing the potential of the four wells.
It said the execution of these operations had progressed as planned, adding: “All the production facilities are now fully commissioned and the BW Athena is operating as designed.
“The first cargo of crude has been transferred from the FPSO to the storage tank at the Ithaca-operated Nigg oil terminal using the Betty Knutsen shuttle tanker.”
Ithaca said its second-quarter net export production was likely to total 370,888 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), or an average of 4,076boe per day.
The output includes volume from Ithaca’s operated Beatrice, Jacky, Anglia and Athena fields and the non-operated Cook, Broom and Topaz fields.
Trap Oil is in the process of buying a 15% stake in Athena from Dyas for £34.5million, with the first stage of the deal – involving a 10% interest – near to completion.
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