Hurricane Energy is to accelerate production at its Greater Lancaster Area in the North Sea as it prepares to abandon the Lincoln Crestal well at Greater Warwick.
The oil and gas explorer and its Greater Warwick partner Spirit Energy have agreed they will not be able to tie back Lincoln Crestal to the Aoka Mizu FPSO floating production vessel in 2020. They have applied to delay the agreed abandonment date of June 2020 to carry out tests but if this is refused will go ahead with testing on the Lincoln Commitment Well.
Meanwhile, Hurricane intends to drill an additional well at Lancaster this year and drill one or more subvertical wells in 2021 to determine the extent of the field.
It said it was seeking regulatory consent to tie back the Lancaster -8 Well to Aoka Mizu in 2021, with a provisional first oil date in Q1 2022. Hurricane said it would not commit to capital expenditure for the tie-back until after the Lancaster -8 Well has been tested.
Hurricane chief Executive Dr Robert Trice said: "We continue to focus on progressing opportunities towards full utilisation of the Aoka Mizu's throughput capacity. A further Lancaster production well would allow us to evaluate the productivity of another part of the Lancaster reservoir, away from the two existing wells, whilst aiming to deliver additional wholly owned production and reducing per barrel costs. I look forward to providing further confirmation as costs are finalised and the relevant agreements are put in place."
