Oil explorer Valiant Petroleum today became an oil producer after announcing its Causeway field had come on stream.
The field, in the northern North Sea, was producing at an initial rate of about 4,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
Valiant, operator and 64.5% equity holder in the field, said the rate was impacted by longer-than-expected clean-up operations due to it being a long horizontal well.
However, it said first oil from the field, a subsea development tide back to the Taqa-operated North Cormorant platform, was a “key operational milestone” for the firm.
Peter Buchanan, Woking-based Valiant’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to have reached first oil on Causeway, our first operated development, which has been delivered safely and in a compressed timeframe.”
Work will continue on the project, 35.5% owned by Canadian-based Antrim Energy, with a second phase of development from the Fionn field due to be completed in the middle of next year.
Valiant said the addition of Causeway, on top of new wells in the EnQuest-operated Dons area, would help it reach about 11,500 bopd by the end of the year, giving it an average 2012 daily production rate of about 6,500 bopd.
The firm added that a strategic review announced at the start of September was still progressing.