Serica Energy is on track to drill the North Eigg exploration well in summer next year, its CEO has said.
And Mitch Flegg has divulged the London-listed firm has put an internal estimate on the North Sea gas prospect of around 60 million to 70m barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Serica confirmed in its 2020 full year results, published earlier this year, that work is ongoing to spud North Eigg next year.
The upstream firm attributed this progress, which followed a gruelling year for the oil and gas sector, to its “considerable unutilised debt capacity”.
If drilling is successful, Serica would seek a “fast-track” route to develop North Eigg, which is situated next to the Rhum field
One of the options being explored is a subsea tie-back to the Bruce facilities, which would reduce their overall carbon intensity.
Serica previously said a fruitful discovery would be likely to “significantly de-risk” the South Eigg exploration prospect.
Speaking during the Europe E&P Summit by Frontier, Mr Flegg said: “We are planning on drilling the North Eigg exploration well in the summer of next year, aiming for June or July. Our internal estimates of prospective resources is around 60-70m boe – it’s a significant prospect.
“For us, the big attraction is that it’s very close to our existing infrastructure. If we can successfully find and extract some hydrocarbons from that prospect, it will help to prolong the life of our infrastructure, which will enable us to recover more reserves from other nearby fields with a very very small carbon footprint. It’s a win win.”
Mr Flegg was also asked whether Serica has any plans to proceed with carbon neutrally produced oil strategies.
Sweden’s Lundin Energy recently announced it had produced the world’s first ever certified, carbon neutrally produced oil from its Edvard Grieg field, offshore Norway.
To facilitate the process, the Stockholm-listed operator capture more than 2,300 tonnes of residual CO2 emissions using nature-based solutions.
Mr Flegg added: “We are focussed on reducing absolute carbon emissions from our operations, not offsetting those elsewhere. Serica has got a job to do to reduce the carbon that we emit and that’s what we’re doing.”
