UK's Hurricane Energy, which focuses on oil production from naturally fractured basement reservoirs, said on Monday that recoverable resources at its Lancaster field in the North Sea are now estimated to be 162 percent higher than a previous estimate from 2013.
A new analysis by RPS Energy Consultants Limited shows that the best estimate recoverable volumes at the Lancaster field are now 523 million barrels of oil, an increase of 162 percent compared to the 2013 oil resource figure, Hurricane Energy said. The best estimate of oil in place is now over 2.3 billion barrels of oil, an increase of 120 percent compared to the 2013 resource estimate, the company noted.
Under the initial six-year period of the planned Early Production System (EPS) at Lancaster, Hurricane Energy sees proven reserves of 37.3 million barrels of oil.
"It is also a landmark for Hurricane to have reserves assigned at the field relating to our planned EPS, for which we continue to advance plans, maintaining our target for first oil of H1 2019," chief executive Dr Robert Trice said in the press release.
At the end of March, Hurricane Energy said that it had drilled the Halifax well and "can confirm that the well is an oil discovery with initial data analysis indicating Halifax is linked to the Lancaster field forming a single large hydrocarbon accumulation."
Back then, CEO Trice said that the company believes that the Greater Lancaster Area "is a single hydrocarbon accumulation, making it the largest undeveloped discovery on the UK Continental Shelf."
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In today's statement, Trice said that Hurricane Energy expects to publish reports relating to Halifax and Lincoln later in 2017.
The company's discoveries and increased estimates for its North Sea assets come at a time when analysts see North Sea production is set to decline, and a potential 'hard Brexit' affecting the UK oil and gas industry's competitiveness.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More