Offshore staff
WOKING, UK -- The second production well on West Don field in the UK North Sea has begun production, according to Valiant Petroleum. The company has completed a water injection well and will begin pressure support in the coming weeks.
The first production well on West Don has been producing at a gross rate of around 6,000 b/d of oil having experienced a steeper decline than was initially expected at the time of field development plan submission, the company says. The performance is partly due to a delay in pressure support from the water injection well. Production from the well has now been stable for some time and the field partners believe that the start-up of the water injection well will support production rates, along with improved uptime on the Northern Producer. The partners are currently considering the potential for a third production well in the south of the field.
Don Southwest
The company has drilled a successful sidetrack from the Area 5 injector well on the Don Southwest field into a newly identified Horst section, proving up additional oil volumes. The Horst is a structural high between Areas 5 and 6 and has excellent reservoir quality with high oil saturations giving internal estimates of gross recoverable reserves of around 7 MMbbl, the company says. Development of the Horst is now likely to take precedence over Area 6 in the completion of the first phase of the field’s development program, which is scheduled for next year.
Following this, the partners are planning a second development phase that will include Area 6 as well as the recently discovered ‘H’ Panel on which Valiant has placed preliminary internal gross recoverable resources of around 9 MMbbl of oil.
Production is currently limited to the Area 5 well, which is currently producing at gross rates of around 12,000-14,000 b/d of oil, with actual average production rates constrained by facilities uptime and shuttle tanker offloading schedules.
The Area 22 production well to the south of the field has a completion blockage and the well is shut-in until gas lift can be delivered from the Northern Producer in a few weeks time or an intervention is undertaken at the end of the current phase of drilling in September, the company says. The water injection wells in both Area 5 and 22 are anticipated to be onstream during September, slightly ahead of schedule.
Due to the longer-than-anticipated period in the commissioning of the overall Don fields, the company will be below its previous 2009 production guidance given at the time of its preliminary results in April. Valiant expects to end the year with around 10,000 b/d of oil of net production capacity.
“Valiant is pleased that the Don fields have now collectively produced over a million barrels of oil on a gross basis,” says Peter Buchanan, Valiant’s CEO. “We remain very excited about the overall potential and future growth of the Don area following our recent discoveries in-and-around the core project. Valiant and its partners have begun to plan further phases of the Don project for 2010 and onwards to maximize the value potential of the overall area.”
08/10/2009
