Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Ithaca Energy is working on a second stage of its Captain enhanced oil recovery polymer program in the UK central North Sea.
Stage II would involve drilling up to four more producer and six injector wells to optimize oil recovery from the area of the Upper Captain Sands reservoir currently produced through subsea wells.
In addition, the company plans to install around 6 km (3.7 mi) of new subsea pipelines and umbilicals to the field’s two subsea areas to provide polymer injection capacity, plus further polymer storage tanks and pumps on the Captain platform and FPSO.
The development could be sanctioned later this year, and would form part of a multi-year program of activities aimed at maximizing oil recovery from the field into the 2030s.
In its latest results statement, Ithaca added that it had reduced Stage 1 polymer injection to one of the well patterns on the field in order to optimize reservoir performance.
Elsewhere in this sector, BP’s Vorlich field is under development as a two-well subsea tie-back to the Ithaca-operated FPF-1 floating production semisubmersible, 10 km (6.2 mi) to the south.
Both wells were drilled last year. Since April this year, TechnipFMC has completed much of the remaining subsea infrastructure installations, including the 10-km infield pipeline and control umbilical between the wells and the FPF-1, and the subsea manifolds, with tie-ins at the wells and the FPF-1 riser base.
All that remains are the diving works to tie-in the pipeline to the FPF-1 riser base and flushing of the production riser, likely to be closed out during September. That will be followed by completion of hookup and commissioning associated with the enhanced NGL processing plant facilities recently installed on the platform following a one-month shutdown.
Vorlich should now come onstream during 4Q, later than planned due to COVID-19 related restrictions, and following start-up, operatorship will transfer from BP to Ithaca.
The company added it was progressing subsurface and engineering studies concerning future tie-ins to the Greater Stella Area (and the FPF-1) on the Austen and Courageous fields.
08/27/2020
