EnQuest on pace for new North Sea oil

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A company helping to steer development of the Kraken oil field in the North Sea said Friday it was on pace to start production by the second quarter.

EnQuest announced a floating production, storage and offloading vessel arrived at the Kraken field this week and securely moored.

"Delivery of first in the second half of 2017 is on track," the company said in a statement.

A North Sea review from consultant group Wood Mackenzie found more than a dozen new oil and natural gas fields are expected to enter into production this year. While new developments looking forward are scarce, about 30 percent of the production by 2020 will come from fields like Kraken that aren't yet fully operational.

EnQuest last year, for an undisclosed sum, took a stronger hold on the Kraken field alongside its non-operator partner Cairn Energy.

In January, the company reported production last year in the British waters of the North Sea was up 11.3 percent from 2015 and its highest net annual production rate since it started doing business in 2010.

"EnQuest believes that the British continental shelf represents a significant hydrocarbon basin, which continues to benefit from an extensive installed infrastructure base and skilled labor," the company said.

In its latest estimate, Cairn Energy said capital spending for Kraken was more than 10 percent lower than the initial estimate.