Oil explorers Xcite, EnQuest and Statoil are to explore the potential for a shared pipeline connecting their adjacent prospects in the northern North Sea.
Bentley operator Xcite yesterday announced that the trio had entered a collaboration agreement to share technical and operation details in order to evaluate the potential for a “common gas import infrastructure”.
The Kraken, Bentley and Bressay fields sit next to one another around 100 miles east of the Shetland Islands.
Xcite had already been working with Statoil over a tie-up between Bentley and Bressay.
“We are pleased to continue to work with Statoil and extend this to include EnQuest in the assessment of this shared infrastructure,” Xcite CEO Rupert Cole said.
“This new collaboration with Statoil and EnQuest to assess this shared infrastructure is an important initiative, which highlights the scope of potential opportunities available to our respective projects.
“I believe today’s announcement further demonstrates that additional value can be created by companies collaborating in key development activities, and it reinforces our commitment to ‘Maximising Economic Recovery’ from the area immediately surrounding the Bentley field.”
Aberdeen-based EnQuest got the go-ahead for its Kraken development, which could feature 140 million barrels of oil equivalent and support 20,000 jobs in the construction phase, almost a year ago.
Partners Cairn Energy and First Oil have 25% and 15% working interests respectively.
The UK arm of Norwegian state energy firm Statoil has an 81.6% interest in Bressay, which is thought to hold reserves of between 200m and 300m barrels of crude equivalent.
But the project, with Shell a junior partner, has been on hold for some time thanks to the high development costs.
Last month it was revealed that Bentley which is wholly-owned by UK-focused Xcite could produce 317m barrels of oil over 35 years, counting all proven, probable and possible reserves.