Offshore staff
LONDON — The UK’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has made various recommendations to help stimulate oil and gas production over the next few years.
Its latest Wells Insight Report shows that UK offshore drilling activity remained low last year, as the industry continued its slow recovery from the impact of COVID-19.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic, drilling operations were taking place in 141 wells. Last year, levels were similar to those recorded in 2020, with operations starting on five exploration, five appraisal and 56 development wells, with production totaling 480 MMbbl in 2021, against 600 MMbbl in 2019.
However, a focus on second wellbores, the newly opened 33rd licensing round and maintenance of existing wells could all help boost production in the years ahead.
NSTA’s Head of Technology Carlo Procaccini said, “Amid the energy crisis, it is vital that North Sea industry works quickly to secure additional supplies of oil and gas, produced as cleanly as possible. That means drilling more new wells and restoring those which can be repaired.
“The NSTA is working with industry on a number of fronts to support this work. Part of that involves sharing data, such as those presented in this report and benchmarking to keep industry better informed on wells performance and priority areas.”
About half of last year’s 66 wells targeted near-infrastructure, fast-track development opportunities. One of the discoveries in a well-developed area came onstream in early 2022, against an average discovery to production timescale for the UK of five years.
And 30% of the wells were geological sidetracks, which can typically be drilled quicker and at lower cost than a new well from the surface.
There have been signs of late that UK offshore drilling will pick up in the medium term. Consistently high commodity prices have helped accelerate development plans for 30 projects targeting a total of 1.5 Bbbl, which are currently progressing toward consent decisions.
But following a reduction in well maintenance in 2021, the performance of the existing wellstock has declined further, with 34% of total active wells on the UK continental shelf now shut in or plugged.
The NSTA is calling for more well interventions to reactivate production, noting that many types of intervention cost £5-10/bbl ($5.6-11.2), which should be an attractive option based on current oil and gas prices.
Last year there were interventions on only 15% of UK offshore wells in 2021, down from 17% in 2020, leading to the addition of only 36.2 MMbbl of production, below the average of 50 MMbbl added in previous years. As for subsea well interventions, less than 10% of UK subsea wells are being surveyed or undergoing maintenance annually, the NSTA added.
In mitigation, some operators are facing logistical constraints on their platforms or problems with supply chain availability.
The NSTA is working with operators on ways to speed up their exploration and development plans and perform more maintenance/intervention work on the existing well stock.
10.20.2022
