Oil & gas production grinds to a halt as North Sea FPSO goes offline

UK-based upstream oil and gas player Serica Energy has confirmed the interruption of production at its assets in the North Sea, which are tied back to an existing floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

Serica Energy confirmed at the start of October 2024 that the B6 well on the Bittern field, which started initial flow back to the FPSO Triton on September 11, was producing oil and gas at a stable rate, with a combined gross rate of around 8,000 boepd, a total of around 5,200 boepd net to Serica.

The firm also disclosed that drilling and completion activities on the Gannet GE-05 well were concluded, with collected data said to show encouraging results. As a result, the beginning of production was expected around the start of November, with the COSL Innovator rig moving to drill the next well in the campaign, on the Guillemot NW field.

However, the production via the FPSO Triton has been interrupted, according to Serica Energy, which explains that the shutdown is related to a problem with the single gas compressor in operation. While a potential dry gas seal failure was identified in the ‘A’ gas compressor during operations on October 26, the UK player explained that there was no leak of hydrocarbons.

Dana Petroleum as the FPSO operator is working to identify and execute the necessary repairs. Serica emphasizes that actions are being taken to reduce the operational vulnerability of the FPSO Triton by bringing the second compressor into service. Even though the timeline for this is likely to be delayed by the corrective work on the ‘A’ compressor, the firm expects the second compressor in Q1 2025.

The outage of production from the FPSO Triton is forecast to affect Serica’s production volume for 2024, which is now anticipated to be slightly below the previous guidance. The company expects production at the FPSO to resume by mid-November, with the addition of production from the GE-05 well on the Gannet field to follow shortly afterward.

Located approximately 190 km east of Aberdeen in water depths of 90 m, the Triton area consists of eight producing oil fields: Evelyn, Bittern, Guillemot West and Guillemot Northwest, Gannet E, Clapham, Pict, and Saxon, which were developed via the FPSO Triton in the UK Central North Sea.

Dana Petroleum Limited and Waldorf Production UK act as Serica’s partners in the Triton cluster, after the firm acquired the entire issued share capital of Tailwind Energy Investments in a deal worth approximately £367 million.