Centrica is investing £35 million in the North Sea Chestnut field, drilling a new production well which aims to more than treble production. The well is expected to also extend the life of the field, which otherwise would have been shut in later this year.
The contract for Teekay’s Hummingbird Spirit floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel at Chestnut, 200km northeast of Aberdeen, has been extended by up to three years to 2020.
Chestnut’s current production from two existing wells is just under 4000 boe/d. The new production well – which will be drilled by Paragon’s MSS1 semisubmersible rig later this year – is expected to bring a further 10,000 boe/d on stream, taking total daily production to nearly 14,000 boe/d.
Production from Chestnut has already been greater than first expected, since first oil in 2008. The field was initially expected to produce 7 MMbo over three years. Investment and consistently high uptime has seen it produce 20 MMbo to date, with field life due hit 12 years.
Gunther Newcombe, OGA operations director, said: “The potential production from this incremental Chestnut field investment demonstrates the value of focused late-life management."