EnQuest Plc has announced ‘first oil’ from the Scolty/Crathes development, in the North Sea, ahead of schedule and under budget.

The project, which was sanctioned a year ago, is anticipated to flow at a peak rate of 10,000 barrels of oil per day in its first year (once operations ramp up).

It is essentially an expansion of the Kittiwake operation, with two horizontal wells (Scolty and Crathes) tied back to the Kittiwake platform. Ongoing production from Scolty/Crathes is forecast to cost less than US$15 per barrel, during the initial peak volume years.

EnQuest also noted this morning that the Kraken field development was on track for start-up in the first half of 2017, as the projects floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is now expected to sail away from Singapore to the North Sea in the coming days.

At the same time, however, the company warned investors that current production volumes, from the Thistle and Dons fields, are to be impacted by third party maintenance work on a pipeline system.

It said it has been informed that the Brent Pipeline System (BPS) is expected to be shut-down this week, for around three weeks. That means the shut-in will be longer than prior expectations and will start later.

EnQuest highlighted that production for the first ten months of 2016 amounted to 40,857 barrels oil equivalent per day, up 25% compared to the same period of 2015.

Whilst volumes for the full year will be boosted by Scolty and Crathes coming online, the maintenance shut down means the company anticipates output will be ‘broadly around’ the rate seen at the end of October – as such it will fall short of guidance, which was for 42,000 to 44,000 boepd.

Source: Proactive Investors