DRILLING & EXPLORATION
to restore production from idle wells reacting to increased commodity prices and the need to secure domestic supply.
Well intervention activity other than restoring shut-ins remained low with only 88 optimisation jobs completed and a decrease in safeguarding jobs from 235 to 208.
The Exploration and Appraisal (E&A) wells that were spudded in 2022 were mainly in the Central North Sea and Northern North Sea areas, with a total spend of £275m (£213m in the CNS and £62m in the NNS). This compares with £179m in 2021 for 10 E&A wells. For the third year running, there was no E&A activity in the WoS or SNS/IS in 2022.
The NSTA is concerned that operators only achieve around 60% of their projected drilling activity, and wants to see that figure substantially improve, as it gives supply chain greater confidence in the volume of work coming through.
Nonetheless currently operators suggest that activity may pick-up, they forecast, with high and moderate confidence, that 77 E&A wells which will be drilled between 2023-25.
12 of these 77 wells are forecast in 2023, 17 in 2024 with the remainder in 2025.
North Sea, three wells, and West of Shetland, four wells, making up the rest.
The UKCS is a mature basin and its existing well infrastructure, in particular the CNS and WoS areas, present opportunities to access new areas of individual reservoirs and increase recovery factors, via new wells and side-tracks from existing wellbores.
However, there is a continuing decline in well activity. There were 48 development wells spudded in 2022, down from 62 in 2021 and 73 in 2020. Similarly, well interventions dropped from 566 in 2020 to 522 in 2021 to 511 in 2022. E&A wells remained steady with 12 in 2022, up two from the previous year.
This decline in well activity could affect assets’ production, with fields approaching a cessation of production (CoP) tipping point. A situation is threatened in which operators delay investment which leads to declining production, in turn pushing CoP closer.
Total well stock has reduced steadily as fields reach the end of their lives and cease production, and this reduction is likely to continue with more fields reaching CoP by 2030.
There are nonetheless encouraging signs; the year has seen a reduction in shut-in wells from 785 to 743, a 5% reduction in shut-in well stock, as operators focused on intervention
34 wells are in Central North Sea, 15 in the Southern North Sea/Irish Sea, 13 in the Northern North Sea/West of Shetland.
Andy Brooks, NSTA Director of New Ventures, said: “We are committed to helping ensure UK energy security and well interventions which increase production from existing facilities can play a key role in that. Production from existing facilities can also have a lower carbon footprint.
“It is also vitally important that we increase development drilling in order to sustain domestic supply, and we are encouraged by the forecast pick-up on Exploration and Appraisal activity in the next few years.”
October 2023
www.sosmagazine.biz 41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
