Serica Energy (LON: SQZ) has announced the conclusion of its planned summer shutdowns on its Bruce and Triton hubs in the North Sea.
The company also provided an update on its licencing activity, including its acquisition of a 30% in the Greater Buchan Area, as well as the departure of three Tailwind Energy executives from the company following its £367 million takeover earlier this year.
On the Bruce and Triton shutdown campaigns, Serica chief executive Mitch Flegg said the company has since re-established “strong levels of production” at both fields.
“During the last month Serica has been consistently achieving production rates in excess of 50,000 boe (barrel of oil equivalent) per day,” Mr Flegg said.
“Overall production guidance for the year is unchanged reflecting delayed production restarts and slower than expected production ramp-ups after the summer shutdowns.”
© Supplied by DCT MediaSerica said its overall production entitlement during the last four weeks has averaged just over 52,000 boe per day.
Meanwhile, the company said guidance for the whole year remains at 40-45,000 boe per day reflecting a slower than planned ramp up of production following the end of the planned summer shutdowns on the Bruce and Triton hubs.
Bruce hub
Serica said production restarted on the Bruce hub on September 11 with work completed including the upgrading of certain control systems and fabric maintenance.
Mr Flegg also hailed successful well campaigns on the Bruce and Guillemot fields during 2023.
“These are further proof of the benefits to be had from low cost, short cycle investments in our existing asset portfolio,” he said.
“The full impact on production of the well work carried out this year is expected to be felt in 2024, aided by the work on the Bruce facilities deferring the need for another major shutdown until 2025.”
Serica also commenced its second light well intervention vessel (LWIV) campaign on the Bruce field in September, which involved re-entering three wells to identify areas of scale build-up, perform water shut offs and perforate target intervals.
With work on one well still to finish, Serica said there has been an uplift in overall production from the re-entered wells of about 2,500 boe per day so far.
Mr Flegg said the LWIV used on Bruce is already booked for a third campaign with the company in 2024, which will target wells on both the Bruce and Keith fields.
“We are also looking forward to the start of a four well drilling campaign in the Triton area, with the first well on the Bittern field scheduled to begin around the middle of the first quarter,” Mr Flegg said.
“2024 is anticipated to be a very busy and impactful year of investments in Serica’s North Sea portfolio.”
Triton hub
Serica said planning is continuing for the four well drilling campaign at the Triton hub, currently scheduled for 2024 and early 2025.
The company said the campaign is being carried out using the semi-submersible COSLInnovator drilling rig and all four wells are production wells.
© Tailwind EnergySerica said it has also exercised an option to use the COSLInnovator to drill a fifth well in the campaign, which may be the development well on the Belinda field.
The company said the draft FDP for this project was submitted to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) regulator in September this year.
Serica North Sea licences
Providing an update on the company’s licencing activity, Serica said the process of completing the acquisition of a 30% interest in the Greater Buchan Area from Jersey Oil & Gas, announced in November, is ongoing.
In addition, Serica has requested an extension to the licence term for Licence P2448, which contains the Mansell discovery, which expires in March 2024.
Serica said it requested the extension to the licence term primarily to determine whether there is a viable long-term export route for production.
Elsewhere, Serica said licence documentation for the award in the UKCS 33rd Offshore Licensing Round of a 100% interest in UK block 29/2a, containing the Kyle discovery in the Triton Area, is in the process of being finalised.
Meanwhile, Serica said it has relinquished Licence P2506, blocks 3/25b, 3/30, 4/26, 9/5a, in the Northern North Sea after “concluding there are no viable exploration targets”.
Tailwind founders to end Serica roles
In other news from the company, Serica said its integration of Tailwind Energy has progressed since it formally completed the £367 million takeover deal in March.
As a result, Serica said Tailwind founders Steve Edwards, Dave Freeman and Tom Ujejski will finish roles with the company by the end of March 2024.
Mr Flegg praised the contributions made by the Tailwind team.
“The levels of production achieved and the range of organic investment projects undertaken underlines the attributes of the Tailwind acquisition,” he said.
“We are grateful for their openness and support during 2023. Each has made important contributions to Serica including pivotal roles in our Greater Buchan Area acquisition and achieving important milestones in the Triton area.
“Their achievement in creating and building Tailwind speaks for itself and we wish them further success in their various endeavours.”
In other company news, Mr Flegg also announced the promotion of Serica vice president operations Mike Killeen to chief operating officer.
Mr Flegg said Mr Kileen’s promotion is “richly deserved”.
“Moreover, it demonstrates the capacity within our organisation for career development, which I hope will help us attract and keep talented people,” he said.
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