Spirit Extends Life of North Sea Gas Field
Centrica's upstream subsidiary Spirit Energy has signed off on a £13mn ($17mn) investment at the York gas field in the southern North Sea, extending the project's production life by three years, it said on July 29.
York, some 34 km from the North East Yorkshire coast, achieved first gas in 2013 and has since yielded 45bn ft3 of supplies. It had been due to close in 2020, but Spirit's York extension project will allow the field to continue producing until 2023-24, recovering an extra 16bn ft3 of gas.
The project involves both onshore and offshore activity, including platform and control system modifications, onshore tie-ins and an intervention in the Y1 well. York's gas will be re-routed to the Dimlington gas terminal in Humberside, instead of its current destination, the nearby Easington terminal, delivery point for Norwegian gas. Work will take place in phases in 2020 and 2021.
"Fields like York demonstrate the importance of focused late-life management to maximise the potential of as many North Sea fields as possible," Spirit's director for North Sea operated assets, Girish Kabra, said.
The UK's regulator, the Oil & Gas Authority that is tasked with maximising the economic recovery of oil and gas from the continental shelf. welcomed Spirit's investment, describing the re-routing of York's gas as a "good example of innovative thinking and collaboration between multiple operators to look beyond the boundaries of current configurations to extend the field life of York and maximise recovery."
The southern North Sea has an estimated 3.78 trillion ft3 of untapped reserves, the upstream regulator said.