EnQuest to develop North Sea fields

UK independent EnQuest received approval to develop its North Sea oilfields Scolty and Crathes amid a cost reduction programme that it had launched to survive the low oil price environment.

The new development will cost around $125 million and involve single horizontal wells in each of the fields. Production will be delivered to the Kittiwake platform for processing and export.

First oil is expected in the first half of 2017, with gross peak volumes of 10,000 barrels of oil per day in its first year.

EnQuest announced Tuesday that the company’s output had increased 26 percent between January and November 2015, compared to the same period in 2014, to an average 35,022 barrels of oil per day. This, however, did not save the company from recording a $34.6-million loss in the first half of 2015, compared to a $78.6-million profit the same period the previous year.

The company announced in an update on Tuesday that it was ahead of targets of reducing operating costs, which it expects will reach $31-32 per barrel in 2015.