Cory Loegering, Apache’s regional VP and MD for the North Sea said it was possible to make money from the UK sector despite the current oil price.
He said the company’s North Sea business centred on the mature Beryl and Forties fields was both competitive and delivering high rates of return.
Moreover, it had lately been boosted by significant drilling successes on Beryl; indeed the two latest local discoveries were described as “exceptional”.
Despite their age, Mr Loegering pointed out that Beryl and Forties remained two of the most prolific North Sea hydrocarbon accumulations and not only that as they ranked best in class for production efficiency at about 92%.
He said too that Apache enjoyed “industry-leading operating costs in the North Sea; indeed, the company had a “50% operating cost advantage”.
“Our operating costs are half the UK average and will come in below $14 per barrel this year,” said Mr Loegering, pointing out that making the effort to achieve top quartile production efficiency really did deliver lower operating costs.
Last year, Apache achieved a unit operating cost of $16.66 per barrel versus the UK average of $30.49.
He said that, thus far, the emphasis had been on capital investment in these two great brownfield assets but that over the period 2016-2020 the accent would increasingly swing to stepping up the drilling effort and shooting further seismic.
On Forties alone, since its acquisition in 2003, Apache has invested $2.3billion in infrastructure and $2.3billion on drilling and workovers to date. Loegering described Forties as the most resilient field in the North Sea.
And still the opportunities keep on coming, with 84 drilling targets currently listed for drilling up on Forties and about the same again for Beryl. And that’s not taking into account what else might be identified through further seismic.
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