Offshore staff
WINDSOR, UK – Centrica says it plans to scale back its international E&P activity.
The company currently has interests in five countries, which the board believes is too over-stretching its capabilities. The board has therefore decided to focus on the North Sea and East Irish Sea, maximizing value from existing operations and investing mainly in Norway and non-operated opportunities.
In the UK southern North Sea the company operates the Rough gas storage complex. During a routine inspection of the facilities in March, a potential technical issue came to light, as a result of which the board opted to limit the maximum operating pressure of the Rough wells to 3,000 psi (207 bar).
The constraint will remain in place at least until testing and verification operations are completed between September and December 2016.
Earlier this month, Centrica Storage secured consent from the UK’s new Oil and Gas Authority to increase the reservoir size of Rough by 4.5 TWh. The increased volume will help restore Rough to its previous capacity level prior to the imposition of the current limitation.
Production from Centrica’s UK and Dutch North Sea assets has decreased, reflecting natural decline from producing fields. However flow rates from theGreater Markham Area fields rose, while production from the York field also improved with a fourth well coming onstream during the second half of 2014.
In Norway, however, the company’s production has grown, helped partly by output fromStatoil’s Valemon project, which started production in January.
07/30/2015
