Oil & Gas UK recognized EnQuest on its success in extending the life of one of the North Sea’s older assets and awarded the company the business innovation title in the large enterprise category.

EnQuest wins oil & Gas UK award for Business Innovation. From EnQuest.

EnQuest’s Thistle late life extension (LLX) project is at the heart of a strategy in the North Sea to recover 35MMbbl from the Thistle and Deveron fields, and extend the life of the Thistle field to 2025 and beyond. As a result, the Thistle project has become recognized by the industry as a proven template for mature field development in the North Sea. The first phase of the LLX program started in 2010 with a successful rig reactivation project which saw EnQuest bring Thistle drilling back online to drill its first new wells in 20 years.

“Oil & Gas UK’s award is a welcome acknowledgement of how our strategy of extending the life of ageing assets and optimizing production is succeeding,” says Neil McCulloch, EnQuest president, North Sea. “These achievements, which have been made with an exemplary safety record, are credit to everyone in the management, operational and support teams because a huge amount of commitment, focus, collaboration and drive goes into delivering such exceptional safe results.”

EnQuest says it established a strong track record in maximizing production from ageing assets by capitalizing on opportunities created by large operators who are divesting their interests in the region. Key to EnQuest’s strategy has been the company’s focus to invest in mature assets - both financially and in terms of time management – while also using existing technology in smarter ways combined with the company’s technical expertise to unlock their potential.

The LLX project represents a major turnaround for Thistle. By simplifying plant equipment layout and upgrading obsolete systems, EnQuest has reinvigorated one of the North Sea’s oldest platforms. As a proven LLX template, EnQuest is also applying the same approach to its Heather asset, the company’s second major redevelopment project.

Heather’s return to drilling (R2D2) program - part of a strategy to target some of the 360MMbbl estimated to remain in the field - led to the start-up of drilling on the platform for the first time since 2006. The R2D2 project will extend the life of the Heather platform, which has twice faced decommissioning in the past, to around 2030.