Oil and gas company Canadian Natural Resources (CNR) said yesterday its North Sea production had slumped because of shutdowns at key fields.
The operator said output at the Ninian complex east of Shetland had been brought to a halt because of unplanned maintenance on the 108-mile pipeline connecting the developments to the Sullom Voe terminal.
CNR said it had to shut in the Ninian and associated fields for 20 days while work was carried out on the Ninian pipeline, which is operated by BP.
The Canadian company said its output averaged 20,333 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in the first half of the year, down from 33,480bpd in the same period in 2011.
CNR said a shutdown at the Banff/Kyle development had also dented production.
The floating production vessel the operator had been using to extract about 3,500bpd from the fields was damaged by a storm in December last year, and has been out of action since.
In its quarterly report yesterday, CNR said the Banff vessel had not suffered serious damage, but it was still not known when it would be able to resume operations.
It is understood that the Ninian and nearby Lyell and Columba fields were shut down while CNR repaired equipment which cleans and checks the integrity of the Ninian pipeline. The company added its drop in production had also been caused by its decision to curtail development activities in the North Sea following the UK Government’s tax rise on oil operators introduced last year.
CNR has said previously it would divert spending from the UK to operations off west Africa in the wake of the levy increase in the 2011 Budget.
The oil and gas operator reported a drop in pre-tax earnings in the second quarter of the year.
In the three months to June 30, CNR’s pre-tax earnings were £663million, compared with £781million in the same period last year.
Revenue increased, however, to £2.5billion from £2.1billion last time.