en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Lancaster field, located west of the Shetland Islands, has ceased production, and the chartered Aoka Mizu floating production, storage and offloading vessel is expected to depart the site by the end of May. The vessel, owned by Bluewater, will undergo maintenance before heading to the Falkland Islands for eventual deployment at the Sea Lion field, jointly held by Navitas Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration. The two companies made a final investment decision on the South Atlantic asset last December.

Serica Energy acquired the Lancaster field through its $25.6 million purchase of the bankrupt Prax in late 2024. Prax, in turn, had taken over the West of Shetland offshore asset when it acquired Hurricane Energy for $250 million in 2023.

Currently, Serica has drawn up a subsea decommissioning and well abandonment plan for the field, with the operational window set for 2027 to 2028. The company wrote on social media: "Thank you to everyone who has worked on the field and will continue to do so during its decommissioning phase." The decommissioning plan for Lancaster was originally submitted and approved by Hurricane in 2022, with forecasts at the time indicating production would remain economic "until at least the end of the first half of 2024." The actual cessation date aligns precisely with Serica's expectations.

The interim arrangement approved for Hurricane two years ago outlined a decommissioning project lasting 23 to 30 days, originally scheduled to commence in 2023, though it was also mentioned at the time that operations "could commence as early as Q2 2022." This decommissioning will incur costs of approximately $15 million, a foreseeable expense for the North Sea operator, which expanded its scale through a series of acquisitions last year.

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