First Gas from UK Cayley Field

First gas has been delivered on schedule from the Cayley field in the UK North Sea by the joint venture operator Repsol Sinopec said June 28. It is the third and final new discovery to be brought on stream during the major redevelopment of the Montrose Area, formerly owned by Talisman.

Gross incremental production from Cayley, Godwin and Shaw – brought onstream in May – is expected to peak at 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day. This will extend the life of the Montrose facilities, which were installed in 1976, to beyond 2030, the operator said.

The project entails the development of the three fields and a new bridge-linked production platform connected to Montrose Alpha to provide additional process and plant support facilities, it said.

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. The project overall is expected to unlock up to 100mn barrels of additional oil equivalent production, including through life extension of legacy fields.

Repsol Sinopec's Brian Winton, the general manager of Montrose and Arbroath, said the development "underlines the transformation of our business. With the support of our shareholders and our partner Marubeni 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."

The CEO of offshore lobby group Oil & Gas UK Deirdre Michie said: "This is the sixth major development to reach first production so far in 2017 and therefore another very welcome announcement, underlining our belief in the future of the North Sea and the resolve of operators to make the most of the opportunities it still offers." 

Repsol Sinopec Resources is operator with a working interest of 58.97%, and Japan's Marubeni Oil & Gas is the sole partner.

William Powell