UK Serica Halts Output from Bruce Group

UK Serica has stopped production from the Bruce, Rhum and Keith fields offshore UK while it repairs a damaged caisson discovered during an inspection of the Bruce platform, it said January 30. This could take two months, it said.

During a Bruce platform inspection, the condition of an unused seawater return caisson on the platform was observed to have deteriorated. This caisson had been taken out of service in 2009. Production through the Bruce facility has been halted.

It said the "financial impact is mitigated by the net cash flow sharing arrangements entered into by Serica with the sellers of interests in the fields in 2018." Serica's other activities, including its share of production from the Erskine field, are unaffected.

It netted 30,000 boe/day of output from its interests in the Bruce, Keith, Rhum and Erskine fields in 2019 – an increase of 13% yr/yr. Under its acquisition agreements with BP, France’s Total and Anglo-Australian BHP, Serica’s share of cash flow from the Rhum, Keith and Bruce fields rose from 50% to 60% at the start of this year. After 2021 it will grow to 100%.