Oil and gas company Neptune Energy has started production from the tenth well at its operated gas field in the UK southern North Sea.
Neptune Energy announced the production start-up from the tenth well at the Cygnus gas field in the UK North Sea on Wednesday, 1 February 2023, “unlocking additional supplies for UK homes and businesses.”
With the start-up of production from the tenth well, Neptune energy highlights that the Cygnus gas facility is now capable of producing enough natural gas to meet the needs of approximately 2 million UK households, “underlining the important contribution of Cygnus to UK energy security.”
The company claims that Cygnus has one of the lowest carbon intensities on the UKCS, at approximately 4kg of CO 2 /boe. Neptune Energy is the operator of Cygnus with a 38.75 per cent stake while its partner, Spirit Energy, holds the remaining 61.25 per cent interest.
Alan Muirhead , Neptune Energy’s UK Country Director, remarked: “Bringing the 10 th Cygnus well online is an important milestone for the field and supports additional supplies of lower carbon gas for UK homes and businesses.
“Domestic production has a crucial role to play in supporting energy security in this country and Neptune has increased gas supplies to the UK from our operated assets in the UK and Norwegian North Seas.”
According to Neptune, the drilling operations were carried out by Borr Drilling’s Prospector 1 jack-up rig, equipped with technologies that reduce carbon and nitrogen emissions from operations by up to 95 per cent, and particle matter emissions by more than 85 per cent.
As a reminder, Neptune disclosed back in May 2022 that it was going to start infill drilling at the Cygnus field in June. The tenth well was expected to be online in October 2022 and plans for an eleventh well indicated this would be brought on stream in 2023, helping to maintain production from Cygnus and offset the natural decline.
The Cygnus field started its first gas production in 2016 and it has a field life of over 20 years. The field hosts two platforms – Cygnus Alpha and Cygnus Bravo – and the first one consists of three bridge-linked platforms – a wellhead drilling centre, a processing unit and living quarters/central control room.
The second one, Cygnus Bravo, is an unmanned satellite platform located approximately seven kilometres northwest of Cygnus Alpha.
The gas from the field is exported via a 55 km pipeline and Cygnus connects to the gas-treatment terminal at Bacton, Norfolk via the Esmond Transmission System (ETS) pipeline.
Neptune Energy also announced that it had kicked off drilling operations at the eleventh well on the Cygnus field. This well is expected to begin production in the second quarter of 2023.