UK: Serica Energy spuds Columbus development well in the UK Central North Sea
17 Mar 2021
Serica Energy has announced the spud of the
Columbus 23/16f-CDev1 development well in the UK Central North Sea which will be drilled to a total depth of 17,600ft and will include a 5,600ft horizontal section. The well is being drilled with the Maersk Resilient Heavy Duty Jack Up rig and is expected to take around 70 days.
Serica Energy spuds Columbus development well in the UK Central North Sea
Map Source: Serica Energy
The Columbus development area is 35km north east of the Shearwater production facilities and will be drained by a single producing well tied into the existing Arran to Shearwater pipeline. A recent Competent Person’s Report estimates the Columbus gross undeveloped 2P reserves to be in excess of 14 million barrels of oil equivalent ( boe ).
Norway: PGS awarded first simultaneous node and streamer acquisition contract
17 Mar 2021
PGS has been awarded a high-end 3D exploration survey by
Lundin Energy Norway (and partners in PL1083) in the Barents Sea, where sparse node and high-density multisensor GeoStreamer seismic will be acquired simultaneously, building on the PGS productivity advantage.
PGS will deploy drop-nodes leased from
Geospace Technologies and operate
Ramform Hyperion as streamer vessel and
Sanco Swift as source vessel with an ultra-wide source configuration. The survey polygon covers approx. 3,600 sq kms, of which a subset will be covered with node seismic. The project will commence in late May 2021 with an anticipated duration of 75 days.
Norway: Rex International announces extension of drill-or-drop decision deadlines for three licences in Norway
17 Mar 2021
PL818 and
PL838B Shaw in the Norwegian Sea, in which Rex’s 90% subsidiary
Lime Petroleum holds 30% interests in each of the licences:
PL818 and PL818B Orkja
One-year extension for the drill-or-drop decision deadline to 5 February 2022
Initial period which endson 5 February2026remains unchanged
PL838B Shaw
One-year extension for the drill-or-drop decision deadline to 1 March 2022
Initial period extended by a year to1 March 2027
For clarity, there are several decision pointsduring the initial period for a licence, the firstand most consequentialof which would bethe drill-or-drop decision. By this date, partners in the licence would need to commit to drilling a wellor may decide to drop a licence.
Expro and FTAI Ocean form exclusive well intervention vessel alliance
17 Mar 2021
FTAI Ocean, a subsidiary of
Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, for the supply of the
DP3 M/V Pride well intervention vessel to provide full light well intervention ( LWI ) services to the subsea oil and gas sector.
Expro and FTAI Ocean form exclusive well intervention vessel alliance
The exclusive three-year agreement allows both companies, which are globally recognised as safe providers of high-quality subsea well access and well intervention solutions, to expand their capabilities and resources to deliver a fully integrated intervention package to the industry.
The new alliance creates a full service offering for the riserless and riser-based well intervention and P&A markets, providing all marine, ROV, well intervention, wireline, e-line, coilhose, subsea well access, hydraulic intervention, well planning, execution and offshore well management by a single supplier using
UK: Petrofac to support next stage of Scotland’s ambitious net zero infrastructure project
17 Mar 2021
Scotland took a step closer to its net zero carbon goals today with the announcement of over £30m of UK Government funding for a suite of initiatives linked to the
Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
In June 2020
Petrofac was selected to provide ongoing Engineering and Project Management Office support for the Acorn project. Under
Scotland’s Net Zero infrastructure (SNZI) programme announced today, Petrofac will drive the offshore pipeline and subsea activities to develop the Acorn CCS project.
The SNZI programme is an industry match funded initiative which brings together academic and industrial partners to develop a major package of work designed to progress a national low carbon infrastructure. They include: