Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Ithaca Energy has budgeted close to $250 million for capex programs this year in the UK North Sea.
Around two-thirds of the expenditure concerns the company’s operated assets, including the Alba and Captain fields in the central North Sea, formerly operated by Chevron.
This summer Ithaca will drill an exploration well on the Fotla prospect, 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Alba.
A platform drilling campaign is already under way at the field complex, involving the completion of three infill production wells and two workovers.
Toward the end of the year, when the campaign should have finished, the drilling crew will transfer to Captain field to finish work on the final platform wells for the Phase I EOR program.
Before mid-year Ithaca expects to sanction the Phase II Captain EOR scheme, which will extend the existing polymer EOR program to areas of the field’s main reservoir that are produced via subsea wells.
BP’s Vorlich gas-condensate development, a tieback to Ithaca’s Greater Stella Area (GSA) complex, should come onstream around the middle of the year.
The main outstanding activities are the tie-in of additional enhanced natural gas liquids processing facilities that have been installed on the FPF-1 platform and installation of the 10-km (6-mi) infield flowline between this and the wells.
In addition, fabrication should start of long-lead equipment for wells and subsea infrastructure that will be needed for Hurricane, the next anticipated subsea tieback to the GSA.
Elsewhere in the region, the company will participate in infill wells on the Elgin / Franklin, Pierce and Callanish fields, designed to mitigate natural decline and maximize reserves recovery.
Finally, Ithaca will set aside $20 million for decommissioning, mainly of the Jacky field wells and platform in the Moray Firth offshore northeast Scotland.
02/03/2020
