Serica Energy PLC began offshore operations to prepare the Rhum R3 well for production. The well, in Rhum field, 380 km northeast of Aberdeen in 109 m of water, requires intervention work.
Awilco Drilling’s WilPhoenix semi-submersible drilling rig is installed over the well and will recover equipment left in the well by the previous operator and remove an obstruction in place across parts of the downhole completion. The well will then be recompleted. Rig operations are expected to last about 70 days.
Rhum, a gas condensate field, produces from two subsea wells, R1 and R2, tied into Bruce facilities through a 44 km pipeline. Production is predominantly gas. Production is exported to St Fergus for delivery into the National Transmission System. Small quantities of associate condensate are exported onshore via the Forties Pipeline System. The field has produced at relatively constant rate of 13,775 boe/d net to Serica through the past year.
Successful recompletion of R3 will increase the production capacity using existing production facilities located on the Bruce platform and will, therefore, not lead to any significant additional CO2 emissions. R3 is already connected to the subsea production infrastructure and is expected to start production early 2021.
Serica is operator at Rhum (50%) with partner National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC, 50%).