Apache is to increase investment in drilling to 78% of its annual capital spending in 2016-2020, compared to 51% in 2012-2015, a business breakfast was told in Aberdeen this morning.
Investment in seismic will double, from 5% of its capital spending to 10%, while spending on infrastructure will fall from 44% to 12%, a senior executive told Oil & Gas UK’s Aberdeen business breakfast.
The firm is also eying development concepts for its 40-60 MMboe Seagull discovery, south of the Forties field, made earlier this year, but will require more appraisal drilling before a final decision can be made, the event was told. The Seagull discovery was among a string of North Sea discoveries, including Callater and Corona, containing 25-50 MMboe and 9-19 MMboe respectively, both close to the Beryl field, announced by Apache earlier this year.
Apache region vice president Cory Loegering, who moved to cover Apache’s North Sea business earlier this year and is upbeat about the business, despite wider gloom in the basin, said “our resources potential [in the North Sea] is significant.”
The discoveries follow years of spending on Apache’s North Sea infrastructure. Since buying the Forties field from BP in 2003, Apache has invested some US$2.6 billion. In that time, the recovery rate on Forties has increased from 47%, with 2.6 billion boe from the 5 billion boe in place field extracted, to 52% to date. When Apache bought the field the remaining reserves were estimated at 144 MMboe. Apache has produced from 235 MMboe and it has some 97 MMboe remaining. A 1% increase in production amounts to an extra 50 MMboe being produced, Loegering told the business breakfast.
Loegering says the firm has extended the life of the Forties field, which had been due to be decommissioned in 2013, to “at least 2030,” through investing money in the infrastructure, seismic and drilling.
When Apache bought Forties, there were 38 drilling targets, of which it drilled 32 with a 74% success rate. It’s added 134 targets since then, with a 75% success rate and today there are an additional 84 targets with more coming, says Loegering.
On the Beryl fields, Apache has been spending cash on 3D seismic, resulting in drilling the Callater and Corona wells. Overall, Apache has had an 89% success rate on its wells in the Beryls area, says Loegering. It is planning further exploration both within tie back distance of the Beryls but also further afield.
Image: Apache's Forties Bravo platform. Photo from Apache.
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