IOG plc announced first gas from the Blythe well in the company’s Phase I of its joint venture Saturn Banks joint venture project in the Southern North Sea.
PRODUCTION
The company’s partner is CalEnergy Resources and its owner Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
IOG today said it had successfully completed backgassing over the past week to enable the planned start-up sequence.
Forward flow began from the Blythe well into the SBRF [Saturn Banks Reception Facilities] on 13 March.
The company plans to start the Elgood well in the next two days and will assess flow rates once stable production is established from both fields.
IOG intends to analyse reservoir performance data over the initial months of production ahead of an annual production guidance range.
OPERATIONS
The company said that the entire Saturn Banks offshore system including the platforms, pipelines, associated subsea equipment and production wells, will be normally unmanned.
The control room at Bacton terminal will run operations remotely to help minimise operating costs and carbon intensity over time.
URGENCY
IOG chair Fiona MacAulay added that the company had moved from the final investment decision to first production in under two and a half years.
“Through constructive collaboration, guided by our values of resourcefulness, innovation, drive, efficiency, resilience and safety, we have transformed IOG from an unfunded start-up to a gas producer expected to generate significant cashflow this year and into the future.
“With heightened energy security risks across Europe and the continued urgency of the energy transition, there has never been a more important time to bring new UK gas resources on stream.
“This is especially true of IOG’s gas which has far lower carbon intensity than imports.”