Offshore staff
CALGARY – Nexen expects to produce first oil from its Ettrick field in the UK central North Sea in the next few weeks, adding around 12-16,000 boe/d to its global production output.
Ettrick is being developed via a leased FPSO, designed to handle 35,000 b/d of oil and 35 MMcf/d of gas. Nexen is also considering a tieback of its nearby Blackbird discovery to the floater.
Elsewhere in the sector, the company will shut down the Buzzard complex for four weeks to complete tie-in and installation of the jacket for a fourth platform. This new installation will allow the complex to handle higher levels of hydrogen sulfide, thereby maintaining peak production from the field through at least 2014.
Another Nexen-operated platform on the Scott field will also be closed down for five weeks for planned maintenance.
New development opportunities are emerging nearby in the area of the Golden Eagle discovery, drilled in 2007. This well, and the later sidetrack to the north, suggested the presence of a high quality reservoir, with testing of the discovery well demonstrating a production rate of around 5,000 boe/d.
Last year Nexen found further hydrocarbons to the south while drilling the Pink prospect, primarily light oil from Upper Jurassic Burns sands, and it has recently completed an appraisal well on the structure. Results are currently being assessed.
Another discovery in the area was Hobby this January, which flowed light sweet oil at a constrained rate of 5,500 b/d with a 56/64-in. choke. Three subsequent sidetracks and an
appraisal well have all yielded positive results. Appraisal drilling on Hobby will resume later this year.
All the successes in this area are coming from hard-to-find, stratigraphic traps, the company points out, pinpointed by the same exploration team that found Buzzard, one of the UK’s largest stratigraphic traps.
07/16/2009
