Hurricane Energy gets nod for Lancaster development

Hurricane Energy’s development plan for the Lancaster offshore field in the UK has been granted consent by the UK authorities.

The company on the 25^th September said it had received development and production consent for its Lancaster field development plan, the Early Production System (“EPS”).

Robert Trice, Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that we have been granted consent for the Lancaster field development plan for the EPS phase of the Lancaster Field. With funding and regulatory approvals in hand, we can now fully focus on delivering the project within the target timeline of first oil in the first half of 2019.”

The company has earlier this month taken the Final Investment Decision on the development of the Lancaster Early Production System using Bluewater’s ‘Aoka Mizu’ FPSO unit.

Furthermore, Hurricane has entered into a contract with Transocean for the Paul B Loyd Jr. Semi-submersible drilling rig to complete the previously drilled Lancaster 205/21a-6 and 205/21a-7Z horizontal production wells, starting in the second quarter 2018.

Also, TechnipFMC has started procurement and fabrication of the main subsea components of the development including subsea umbilical, risers and flowlines “SURF” and subsea production system “SPS”. Subsea installation activities at Lancaster are scheduled for summer 2018, in advance of the planned arrival of the ‘Aoka Mizu’.

According to Mr Trice, the Lancaster EPS is not only an essential step in planning for the full field development of the company’s Rona Ridge assets, but also represents a substantial development in its own right, with planned production of 17,000 barrels of oil per day.

He said:”I would like to thank the Oil and Gas Authority, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and the Health & Safety Executive for their support in our achieving the first approval of a field development plan for a UK basement field. This is an important step in demonstrating the potential of basement West of Shetland and in the UKCS more generally.

“We greatly appreciate the contributions provided to date by our key contractors and partners: Bluewater Energy Services, TechnipFMC, and Transocean. We look forward to providing further updates as we move forward with engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPIC) activities.”

The Lancaster licence has combined 2P Reserves and 2C Resources of 523 million barrels. In addition, the company has 205 million barrels of oil equivalent on its Whirlwind licence.

During the 2016-2017 drilling campaign the company made two significant discoveries at Halifax and Lincoln prospects, indicating that the Greater Lancaster Area and the Greater Warwick Area have the potential to be two large accumulations.