Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Ithaca Energy has sanctioned the Captain enhanced oil recovery (EOR) Stage 2 project in the UK central North Sea.
This follows approval for its field development plan addendum from Britain’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
EOR Stage 2 is the next phase of a project designed to increase hydrocarbon recovery from the heavy-oil Captain field, originally developed by Texaco.
It involves injecting polymerized water into the reservoir supported by additional subsea wells, subsea infrastructure and new topsides facilities.
According to Ithaca, Stage 1 of the project proved that polymer EOR technology works, with a production response in line with or better than expected across all injection patterns.
Captain is a billion-barrel field in block 13/22a in the outer Moray Firth region, which started production in March 1997.
Main surface facilities are a wellhead protector platform and bridge-linked platform connected to an FPSO, with horizontally drilled wells equipped with downhole pumps.
Ithaca operates with an 85% interest, in partnership with Dana Petroleum (15%).