Phased FPSO restart underway as COSL prepares to drill next well in North Sea

UK-based upstream oil and gas player Serica Energy is progressing with a phased restart of oil and gas production from fields connected to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the North Sea, which is working on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). A rig from COSL Drilling Europe, an offshore drilling player, will now start activities at another well in the company’s multi-well drilling campaign and work-over program.

After the suspension of production at the FPSO Triton in October 2024, because of issues with gas export compression availability, a limited resumption of production occurred a month later. However, an issue with one of the compressor seals led to another production suspension. As a result, the FPSO operator, Dana Petroleum, was going to carry out necessary repairs that were anticipated to take two to four weeks.

According to Serica, the production resumed on December 27, with a phased restart of the existing and new wells ongoing. Following extensive root cause analysis and remedial work, the restart of the export gas compressor occurred with gas exports beginning on December 29.

The company underlined that it also experienced a short period of unscheduled downtime on the Bruce platform related primarily to a subsea intervention to ensure enhanced production reliability on the Rhum field. In light of this, Serica’s 2024 production averaged 34,600 boepd. From January 5, 2025, the firm’s overall net production totaled 46,400 boepd.

“With the planned phased restart of the Triton fields, we expect this rate to increase, ramping up to full run-rate production as all wells, including new production from the Gannet GE05 well (SQZ: 100%), are brought online. The resumption of operations with two-compressors at Triton, which the company has not seen since Q1 2024, remains on schedule to be achieved in Q1 2025,” outlined the North Sea player.

The UK player’s Triton area drilling campaign, which began in April 2024 with the COSL Innovator drilling rig to enhance production via the FPSO Triton, entails eight producing oil fields: Evelyn, Bittern, Guillemot West and Guillemot Northwest (NW), Gannet E, Clapham, Pict, and Saxon.

Furthermore, the drilling and completion operations and requisite steps for hook-up on the next well in the campaign, EC1 on the Guillemot North West field, were concluded, with similarly positive initial data to that seen on the B6 and GE05 wells. The new well is expected to commence production in Q1 2025.

Chris Cox, Serica’s CEO, highlighted: “At Triton the key issue has been operating vulnerabilities associated with reliance on a single gas export compressor, and we have stayed in touch closely with the FPSO operator as they worked through root cause analysis in relation to the repeated issues seen in H2 2024.

“We understand what has caused these issues and, together with our partners, are implementing improvements to support better and more reliable future performance. As the Triton operations continue their ramp-up, we look forward to seeing both enhanced production as the new wells drilled during 2024 contribute fully, and more resilient operations, as we resume operations with two compressors in Q1.”

The COSL Innovator rig is now set to move to kick off drilling operations on EV02 on the Evelyn field. This potentially high-impact well is scheduled to achieve its first production in Q2 2025. Once COSL’s rig drills the well on the Evelyn field, it will finish the campaign with a well on the Belinda development.

The Belinda development well is scheduled to be drilled in the first half of 2025, with the first oil expected in the first half of 2026 following tie-in work. Recently, Serica made a move to bring two additional licenses into its fold by acquiring Parkmead.