Serica confident after year of slipping production numbers
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 07 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - Serica Energy announced its 2024 production figures on Tuesday, averaging 34,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The AIM-traded company highlighted key operational updates, including the phased restart of production from the Triton Hub following extensive remedial work and the resolution of gas export compressor issues.
Production figures for the year revealed variability across assets - the Bruce Hub averaged 19,800 daily barrels, while the Triton Hub produced an average of 9,000 barrels per day, with significant downtime impacting output.
Other assets contributed 5,800 barrels per day on average.
By 5 January, production had increased to 46,400 daily equivalent barrels, with further improvements expected as Triton fields ramped up and new wells came online.
Triton production resumed on 27 December, with gas exports restarting on 29 December after addressing compressor issues.
The firm said the restart process took longer than initially anticipated due to detailed root cause analysis and repairs.
Operations at Triton were on track to achieve two-compressor functionality by the first quarter of 2025, a capability not seen since early 2024.
Serica also reported progress on its drilling campaign.
It said the Gannet GE05 well, which it 100% owns, was contributing new production, while the EC1 well in the Guillemot North West field, of which it owns 10%, was set to begin production in the first quarter.
Drilling was scheduled to start on the EV02 well in the wholly-owned Evelyn field, with first production expected in the second quarter of the year.
Early data from the EC1 and other wells suggested promising outcomes, Serica said, supporting its strategy to enhance production reliability and capacity.
Serica said it would issue detailed 2025 guidance in a trading update on 21 January.
"Production in the second half of 2024 was clearly disappointing and well below the potential of our asset base," said chief executive officer Chris Cox.
"We and our partners are working to improve planning and procedures to optimise maintenance and maximise production resilience going forward.
"At Triton, the key issue has been operating vulnerabilities associated with reliance on a single gas export compressor, and we have stayed in touch closely with the FPSO operator as they worked through root cause analysis in relation to the repeated issues seen in H2 2024."
Cox said the company understood what caused the issues and, together with its partners, was implementing improvements to support "better and more reliable" future performance.
"As the Triton operations continue their ramp-up, we look forward to seeing both enhanced production as the new wells drilled during 2024 contribute fully, and more resilient operations, as we resume operations with two compressors in the first quarter."
At 1108 GMT, shares in Serica Energy were down 1.05% at 149.22p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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