Drilling & Completion

Serica steps up drilling in North Sea Triton area

Feb. 5, 2024

Serica Energy’s development program in the UK North Sea this year includes a combination of new wells and interventions.

Related To: Serica Energy

The Guillemot West (pictured) and Guillemot North West fields were discovered in 1983 and 1985, respectively, and are located about 10 km northwest of the Triton FPSO.

Offshore staff

LONDON — Serica Energy’s development program in the UK North Sea this year includes a combination of new wells and interventions.

The company plans four wells in the Triton area (Bittern B1z sidetrack, Gannet E GE-05, Guillemot North West EC1 and Evelyn EV-02), with drilling of the sidetrack set to start in March.

This and the subsequent three wells should each take about three months to compete, extending drilling through 2025. In addition, the company has an option to retain the rig for a further well following completion of the fourth well, EV-02.

Production from the B1z sidetrack should start shortly after completion with startup of the next three wells expected about 30 days after each has been completed.

The Triton area consists of eight producing oil fields developed via common infrastructure in the UK Central North Sea, located about 190 km east of Aberdeen in water depths of 90 m.

In the northern UK North Sea, a light well intervention vessel campaign should get underway on the Bruce and Keith fields between March and May, with Serica aiming to build on previous campaigns in 2022 and 2023 that delivered low-cost production growth.

Later this year, the company hopes to restart production from the Keith Field, a satellite to the Bruce complex, following a successful program of work on the subsea facilities. It also plans further interventions from the Bruce platform in the second half of 2024 and two infill wells on Bruce, probably drilling in 2026.

Estimated cost to Serica of this year’s projects is about £210 million ($264.7 million), before tax relief.

Elsewhere in the sector, the Skerryvore joint venture (Serica 20%) is looking to drill a commitment exploration well on the license either in late 2024 or the first half of 2025.

In the southern UK North Sea, the company expects to incur abandonment costs this year of about £14 million pre-tax ($17.65 million) related to final decommissioning of the Arthur Field. The liability came with the company’s acquisition of Tailwind Energy.

02.05.2024