Spirit Energy to take on operatorship of North Sea gas field
Oil and gas operator Spirit Energy will take on the operatorship of a UK gas field in which it holds a 13 per cent share, it was confirmed yesterday.
The company reached an agreement with its joint venture partners to take on operatorship of the Babbage gas field in the North Sea, and will do the same at the nearby Cobra discovery, in which it holds a 50 per cent interest.
It also announced additional plans to drill an exploration well at the adjacent Python prospect next year to further access reserves in the region.
Transfer of the operatorship is subject to completion of the divestment of existing operator Premier Oil’s interests to Verus Petroleum, as well as securing the relevant regulatory approvals.
Chris Cox, chief executive of Spirit Energy, said: “Becoming operator at Babbage is an excellent adjustment to Spirit Energy’s portfolio.
“It is an asset and an area we know well and we are looking forward to working with our partners to maximise the value of the field.
“With an exploration well at the nearby Python prospect to come in the second quarter of 2019, we see significant opportunities to build on the greater Babbage area and boost production further from a field which is expected to produce gas for many years to come.”
The Babbage field, which first started producing gas in 2010, is an installation 55 miles off the east coast of the UK. So far this year it has a year-todate average production of around 5,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Meanwhile Surrey-based oil and gas company Hurricane Energy has announced its Lancaster Early Production Systemproject,knownaslancaster EPS, is on schedule to start producing oil in the first half of 2019. The energy group announced in an investor update that well operations in the Lancaster oil field west of Shetland are now complete, concluding the first of three main elements of the project’s installation campaign.
Hurricane chief executive Robert Trice said: “I’m pleased to report that we have concluded well completion operations safely, bringing us another step closer to first oil.”
According to the company, Lancaster EPS will be the UK’S first basement field development and is expected to initially produce 17,000 barrels of oil per day.
The Lancaster field is Hurricane’s most appraised asset, with five wells drilled by the company to date.
hannah.burley@jpress.co.uk