The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Kraken awakes as new field starts
Ithaca Energy has achieved first oil from the delayed Greater Stella field in the North Sea.
Aberdeen-headquartered Ithaca expected the field to come onstream late last year, but electrical faults on the FPF-1 floating production facility and bad weather set back production.
The company, which is the subject of a £1 billion takeover by Israel’s Delek Group, said it had now overcome those setbacks and the field had produced its first hydrocarbons.
An Ithaca spokesman said: “Production has been started from the field and oil export to the adjacent shuttle tanker has commenced.
“The production ramp-up phase will commence when the ongoing commissioning of the gas processing and compression facilities is complete.”
The Greater Stella Area includes development of the Stella and Harrier fields, with subsea wells tied back to the FPF-1 floating production unit.
The project is located in the Central Graben area of the central North Sea and is thought to hold more than 30 million barrels of oil.
The FPF-1 arrived on site after setting sail from Poland in August last year.
Ithaca said it would provide further information on Stella’s performance in its 2016 financial results next month.
Ithaca previously said it expected Stella to double production at the company to between 20,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The breakthrough came as Enquest said the floating production vessel to service the Kraken field was now on site and hooked up.
It said it was continuining commissioning work of the topsides and reconstruction of the turret pipework and connecting risers was under way.
Enquest said a period of commissioning would then take place on the field’s subsea infrastructure with a view to the production of first oil from Kraken in the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, the war of words between Edinburgh oil exploration group Bowleven and rebel investor Crown Ocean Capital (COC) continues.
The pair are at loggerheads after COC requisitioned a general meeting next month to force the removal of the majority of the current board.