Ithaca gears up for Harrier development

Oil and gas company Ithaca Energy has launched a development program for the Harrier field, located in the Greater Stella Area (GSA) in the UK North Sea, expecting to start production in 2H 2018. 

The GSA licenses contain the Stella and Harrier fields, both currently in the development process with Stella expected to produce first hydrocarbons in February 2017. The area also contains the Hurricane discovery, the Twister prospect, and the Vorlich discovery, which is located 10 kilometers North of Stella.

Ithaca said on Thursday that the development drilling on the Harrier field is expected to be completed in 2017, followed by production start-up in the second half of 2018. The field comprises the Harrier Ekofisk and Harrier Tor chalk reservoirs, both containing gas condensate.

The company’s 2017 operational program is dominated by start-up of the Stella field and the beginning of Harrier field development activities with the capital investment program forecasted to be around $70 million, primarily centered on Greater Stella Area activities, including development drilling on the Harrier field.

“The company moves into 2017 in good health, with increasing cashflow, continued deleveraging and the launch of the low cost Harrier satellite development,” Les Thomas, Ithaca Chief Executive Officer, said.

Harrier development

In line with the company’s strategy for building out the GSA production hub, investment in the Harrier field development program starts during 2017.

The program for the Harrier field involves drilling of a multilateral well into the two reservoir formations on the field, with the well tied back via a 7.5 kilometer pipe to an existing slot on the Stella main drill centre manifold for onward export and processing of production on the FPF-1 production facility.

The GSA joint venture has contracted with Ensco Offshore UK for the provision of a heavy duty jack-up drilling rig, which is expected to arrive on location in the second quarter of this year. The drilling program is forecast to be completed in the second half of 2017 and the subsea infrastructure installation activities in summer 2018, resulting in the anticipated start-up of Harrier production in the second half of 2018.

According to the company, the net capital expenditure associated with execution of the development over 2017-18 is approximately $75 million, equating to a development cost of significantly less than $10/boe. This, the company said, represents a cost reduction of approximately fifty percent from that originally forecast.

The reduction in capital expenditure is driven by both detailed well engineering design work that has enabled the move away from drilling two individual wells to one multi-lateral and securing attractive contracting terms across the supply chain, Ithaca explained.

Offshore Energy Today Staff