Page 11 - EurOil Week 08 2022

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

IOG warns of North Sea project delay

owing to poor weather

UK UK junior Independent Oil & Gas (IOG) has hydrocarbons, back-gassing operations can start,
warned of delays to the start-up of the Saturn the company said. This is expected to take place
A delay of two weeks or Banks Project - Phase 1 in the UK south North in the week starting February 28, while first gas is
more is expected. Sea as a result of stormy weather conditions. expected approximately a week later.
In its latest project update, IOG reported on IOG previously said back-gassing of
February 21 that preparations for first gas at Sat- the offshore pipeline system would start in
urn Banks were now 99% complete, and that the mid-February.
company’s senior management had attended a Saturn Banks Project - Phase 1 will involve
final pre-start up safety review ahead of commis- the development of the Blythe, Elgood and
sioning on February 17, while also inspecting the Southwark fields. IOG and its partner CalEn-
facility. ergy Resources, which both hold 50% stakes in
“Terminal operator Perenco, executing the venture, took a final investment decision in
work on IOG’s behalf, advised us that the cur- October 2019.
rent stormy weather has hampered the final IOG kicked off development drilling at the
construction and leak testing programme with fields in April last year, with the spudding of a
a knock-on impact on the commissioning of first well at Elgood. This was followed by the start
the safety instrumentation systems,” IOG CEO of work at the Blythe field in August last year and
Andrew Hockey said in a statement. at the Southwark field in January this year.
Once Perenco, IOG and its pipeline duty The second phase of Saturn Banks will entail
holder ODE Asset Management have signed the development of three more fields, Goddard,
off on the facilities being ready to introduce Nailsworth and Elland.™

Hurricane ships 530,000 barrels

from North Sea Lancaster field

UK SOME 530,000 barrels of oil left Hurricane Ener- overall amount in the trust to £33.7mn.
gy’s Lancaster field last month, the operator said Hurricane also noted it had earned £3.2mn
Lancaster has largely on February 14, with the P6 well alone averaging in cash rebates relating to research and develop-
disappointed since its 9,500 barrels per day. ment tax claims originating in the 2019 tax year.
launch. This was considered a good result, con- HMRC is still reviewing an additional £1.3mn
sidering that the troubled project fell past the claim, but that is expected to be received later in
so-called “bubble point” last month, referring the year.
to when reservoir pressure drops to the level Lancaster, located west of the Shetland
at which gas is liberated from oil. Despite this, Islands, contains complex fractured basement
Hurricane is not experiencing production issues reservoirs that so far have been left untapped
yet, and the company’s main shareholder Crystal in the UK. The field has significantly under-
Amber has said it is hopeful that the field could performed since its launch in 2019, but recent
still be in production in 2025. results have been more promising. ™
The 27th cargo of around 530,000 barrels left
the field on January 25, Hurricane said in a trad-
ing update, and the next cargo is due to leave in
late March. The most recent cargo was priced at
$81.4 per barrel, in line with the average for dated
Brent quotes in the first five days of January.
Hurricane has also issued a financial update,
confirming that the UK oil and gas regulator
has ordered it to put aside additional funds for
future decommissioning work. How much this
will be is still under discussion, but is expected to
amount to £5.7mn ($7.7mn). This will boost the

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