EnQuest taking steps to stem North Sea production falls

Offshore staff

LONDON – First-half production from the Magnus field east of Shetland in UK waters was over 26% lower than in the corresponding period for 2020 at 13,947 boe/d, according to operator EnQuest.

This was partly due to an increase in scope for a planned well intervention program (including use of coiled tubing), an unplanned third-party outage, power-related failures, and natural declines associated with wells brought onstream in early 2020.

However, since June, three wells have been restored to service and production performance has improved. The coiled tubing campaign will continue allowing production to improve further, with two more wells likely to be drilled in 2022.

In the same region, the Kraken field has been producing around 23,690 boe/d, down on the same period for 2020 due to the need for a riser tether repair and natural declines. However, there was good production and water injection efficiency (90% and 92%, respectively), and the FPSO continues to perform well.

Subsurface and well performance has also been sound, with aggregate water cut evolution in line with expectations. A 3D seismic campaign completed in July will support studies of a potential development of the field’s western area, along with optimization of the main part of the field, including potential infill opportunities. 

In the UK central North Sea Greater Kittiwake Area, production dipped following the failure of a power umbilical to the Mallard and Gadwall wells, but Scolty/Crathes have benefited from the introduction in February of compression and gas lift, although there was a recent gas compression outage.

The power umbilical replacement should further improve performance later in September. 

Following acceptance by the UK regulator of the Cessation of Production (CoP) application for the Heather field, subsea inspections have been completed ahead of the resumption of the well P&A program. At Broom, a satellite to Heather, the regulator approved the CoP application in March.

At Thistle, EnQuest completed the first phase of the re-habitation of the platform in June, and a permanent team now on the facility is preparing for the well abandonment program in 4Q.

09/02/2021