Hartshead is continuing to push forward with the development of its Anning and Somerville gas fields offshore UK with the award of a key geophysical survey.

The survey, which will begin in April this year, will provide the company with an interpretation of the seabed geomechanical and engineering conditions at the Anning and Somerville field locations as well as an environmental baseline survey and habitat assessment.

It includes in-situ geotechnical testing and laboratory testing of seabed samples taken from selected preferred platform and inter-field pipeline locations at the two sites.

Results from the survey will form part of Hartshead Resources’ (ASX:HHR) Environmental Statement which is a key component of the Field Development Plan (FDP) submission and is also required for the Platform front-end engineering and design (FEED) jacket design verification.

“The Phase I development is progressing well, with work across platforms, pipelines, wells and offtake moving forward,” chief executive officer Chris Lewis said.

“The survey at the platform locations will confirm seabed conditions for the platform jacket design and provide data for the environment statement to be submitted in 2023. These are all positive steps along the road to first gas.”

Hartshead was recently approved by the UK North Sea Transition Authority as the operator of License P2607, which covers both fields.

Favourable gas market

While Europe is poised to end the winter with a near-record volume of gas in storage – due to a combination of industrial closures, high prices and milder-than-normal temperatures, the UK’s continued reliance on gas for heating and power generation as well as lack of gas storage leaves it exposed to future global energy gas spikes.

As such, Hartshead’s development of Anning and Somerville as the first phase of its Southern Gas Basin development is likely to have no shortage of customers once it comes on stream.

The Phase 1 development seeks to bring the Proved and Probable (2P) reserves of 301.5 billion cubic feet of gas contained within the two fields into production.

Production will be carried out through six wells connected to two wireline-capable Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI) platforms.

These platforms will in turn transport the extracted gas via a subsea pipeline to third-party infrastructure – likely Shell’s Southern North Sea infrastructure – for onward transportation and processing into the UK’s gas transmission network.

Peak production is estimated to be about 140 million standard cubic feet per day with first production expected in late 2024.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Hartshead Resources (ASX:HHR), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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