Offshore staff
LONDON — Neptune Energy has confirmed it will invest more than $1 billion in the next few years in developing energy supplies for the U.K.
The company claims its operated fields in the U.K. southern gas basin and the Norwegian North Sea account for 11% of the U.K.’s total gas needs.
Following the recent publication of the U.K. government’s British Energy Security Strategy, the company plans to:
- Double gas production from its Duva Field offshore Norway to about 13,000 boe/d;
- Start infill drilling next month at the Cygnus Field in the U.K. sector, with the 10th well due to come onstream in October. It will then start up an 11th well next year, helping to sustain production from the Cygnus Field and offset natural decline; and
- Potentially increase supplies further, if Britain’s Gas Safety Management Regulations were more closely aligned with European standards.
In the central U.K. North Sea, the company and its partners have allocated about $1 billion to the Seagull Field tieback to bp’s ETAP complex, which from next year should add about 50,000 boe/d to the U.K.’s production.
As a participant in the TotalEnergies-operated Isabella gas-condensate discovery in the same area, Neptune will co-fund a planned appraisal well in the second half of this year. If results suggest the field is economic to develop, the estimated cost could be $1 billion.
Other plans include spending about $300 million over the next three years further developing the Gjøa hub in the Norwegian North Sea, which exports gas to the U.K. via the St Fergus terminal north of Aberdeen.
Neptune may bid for acreage close to its core areas in the U.K. North Sea if the government goes ahead with a new licensing round. It is also in talks with the North Sea Transition Authority on the potential development of Pegasus West via a tie-in to Cygnus.
In the same area, the company is assessing opportunities for the electrification of Cygnus and carbon capture storage and hydrogen projects in the North Sea.
Over the past three years, Neptune added that it had invested more than $500 million in securing energy supplies for the U.K. and more than $500 million developing new tie-in projects around its Gjøa hub.
05.10.2022
