Oil and gas firm Serica Energy (AIM: SQZ) has confirmed it will hit its full year targets for production as two North Sea wells deliver on their promise.
The company said a well on the Bittern field in the Central North Sea, B6, had commenced initial flowback in September and is now producing at a stable rate of around 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
Tied the Triton FPSO, the well is 64.6% owned by Serica and operated by South Korea’s Dana Petroleum (32.95%) which makes production of 5,200 boepd net to AIM-listed company. The well is 14miles (22km) south east of the FPSO.
Serica took its stake in the area when it acquired Dana’s partner Tailwind in a £367million deal in 2022, which made it a top ten North Sea producer. The private investor-backed Tailwind had bought Shell and ExxonMobil’s stakes in the Triton cluster in 2018.
Serica also delivered a further update on a well on its Gannet field. Data from its fifth well on the field, GE-05, which is 100% owned by Serica, showed “encouraging results” and that production is on track to start in November.
The field, initially discovered in 1982, was shut in for several years after it suffered the biggest North Sea oil leak in a decade in 2011 when it was operated by Shell (LON: SHEL) and connected to the Gannet Alpha platform.
Now connected to Triton, wells on the Gannet field have been producing again since 2018.
Serica said total production from its portfolio is now over 50,000 boepd, which means it would result in the company ending the year in line with updated guidance given in its half-year results 10 September.
The independent oil and gas producer used the occasion to denounce the UK’s “unjustifiably punitive” fiscal regime ahead of the Autumn budget on 30 October.
Earlier this week it launched an emotive film, entitled A Town Called Bruce, to highlight the potential impact UK plans to extend tax and remove investment incentives will have on workers.
It joined forces with the GMB union and independent operator group, BRINDEX, to produce the film which focuses on the working people of Serica’s Bruce facility in the North North Sea.
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