Page 16 - Euroil Week 21 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Hurricane suffers setback at Lancaster
UK
The move means the company will suspend its production guidance.
LONDON-LISTED Hurricane Energy has shut in one of the two wells flowing at its Lancaster early production system (EPS) west of the Shet- lands, it said on May 22, after encountering flow instability.
The move means the company will suspend its production guidance, it said.
Hurricane achieved first oil at its 100%- owned Lancaster field in June last year. The field is currently in its first phase of development, involving two wells connected to the Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
The company has been undertaking tests at the two wells to see whether they can produce up to 20,0000 barrels per day (bpd). In a trading update on May 22, however, it said that achieving this level would not be possible, as rising produc- tion has led to unstable flow at the 205/21a/7Z well as a result of interference between the two wells.
Hurricane has therefore decided to shut in the well for the time being and continue test-flow- ing the 205/21a-6 well at maximum rates. The remaining well is currently flowing 10,300 bpd, but Hurricane intends to raise this rate incre- mentally to determine the maximum.
Earlier the company had forecast full-year production at 17,000 bpd, versus 15,500 bpd so far this year.
“The results of the recent testing of the Lan- caster EPS wells at elevated combined production
rates are disappointing and the degree of interfer- ence encountered is unexpected,” Hurricane CEO Robert Trice said. “Whilst the wells show high pro- ductivity individually, their proximity and associ- ated interference behaviour require further data acquisition before the company can be confident about optimum long-term well rates. This latest development reinforces that.”
Hurricane will continue acquiring data and provide further updates once it has worked out how much the remaining well can produce at plateau, he said.
“This forced shut-in is another issue Hurri- cane has experienced developing its unusual fractured basement reservoir,” Matt Cooper, ana- lyst at Peel Hunt, commented in a research note.
Earlier Hurricane revealed that bottom-hole pressures at the EPC had declined three times faster than expected, while the water cut had risen to 46% at the 7Z well and 7% at the 6 well.
Hurricane may need to do a re-intervention at 7Z to reduce water cut and enable the well to access a more permeable part of the reservoir, independent analyst Malcolm Graham-Wood suggested in a blog post.
“We always knew from its historical global history [it] was never going to be straightfor- ward,” Graham-Wood wrote. “This latest chal- lenge is a product of the well configuration which has led to high interference and doesn’t necessar- ily mean anything negative about the reservoir’s ultimate potential.” ™
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