Upstream oil and gas company Serica Energy has started production from its Columbus gas field, located in the Central North Sea off the UK.
Serica started drilling the Columbus well , using the Maersk Resilient jack-up rig, in mid-March 2021. The company achieved successful flow test results from the development well and started working to tie it to the Arran field export system in July 2021.
In October, Serica Energy revealed that the start-up of production at its Columbus field would experience a short delay due to restricted capacity at Shell’s Shearwater platform, but there would be no significant long-term impact.
As reported by Serica on Thursday, hydrocarbons from the C1z development well started flowing into the Arran subsea system on 24 November.
According to the company’s update, the comingled Arran and Columbus production streams are now being exported to the Shearwater platform for processing and onward export to the gas and liquid sales points. Columbus is expected to be producing at its potential by early December.
The first production from the Shell-operated Arran gas and condensate field started in September 2021 .
Mitch Flegg , Chief Executive of Serica Energy, commented: “This marks a significant milestone for Serica as it reaches the successful conclusion of its first development project. The company was involved in the original discovery of Columbus and has acted as operator through the appraisal and development phases and now into operations.”
Flegg emphasised that Serica’s approach to increasing its production base and providing much-needed energy to the UK while seeking lower carbon emission solutions has been achieved by using shared existing infrastructure to progress the development of Columbus .