First-gas has been delivered on schedule from the Cayley field – the third and final new discovery to be brought on stream during the major redevelopment of the Montrose Area in the Central North Sea.
Repsol Sinopec – the Aberdeen-based operator – expect gross incremental production from Cayley, Godwin and Shaw (brought onstream in May) to peak at 40,000 boepd.
This will extend the life of the Montrose facilities, which were installed in 1976, for another 13 years to 2030 – and possibly even further.
The Montrose Area Redevelopment is a major capital project that significantly enhances the long term Montrose Area infrastructure. The project incorporates the development of three new fields – Godwin, Cayley and Shaw – and a new bridge-linked production platform connected to the Montrose Alpha to provide additional process and plant support facilities.
The Godwin field has already been developed via an extended reach well from the Arbroath platform. The Cayley and Shaw fields have been developed as subsea tie-backs to the BLP. The project overall is expected to unlock up to 100 million boe of additional production, including through life extension of legacy fields.
Brian Winton, Repsol General Manager for the Montrose and Arbroath platforms, said: “Safe and successful delivery of these fields is a great achievement for Repsol Sinopec and underlines the transformation of our business.
“We have overcome significant technical and legacy challenges to safely maximise economic recovery from these historic fields and facilities. We can now look forward to hub production from Montrose for another 15 years.”
An Oil and Gas UK spokesman commented: “This is the sixth major North Sea development to reach first-production so far in 2017.
“This very welcome announcement underlines our belief in the future of the North Sea energy-sector and the resolve of operators to maximise economic recovery of the billions of barrels of oil and gas still available in the basin.”
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