Apache North Sea’s strategy of pursuing new opportunities close to its existing assets is paying multiple dividends, and its latest success underlines the value of delivering projects at pace. Wireline explores the story behind Garten.
As the 2,500th exploration well on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), Garten was already a name for the record books. More remarkable still, is Apache North Sea’s success in carrying the field from discovery to production in less than eight months.
Discovered in March 2018 in Block 9/18a Area-W, early results at the Garten well suggested recoverable resources for the field (or structure) exceeded 10 million barrels of light oil as well as associated natural gas. By November, the well was producing 13,700 barrels of oil and 15.7 million cubic feet of gas per day, via a tie back to the Apache-operated Beryl Alpha platform, six kilometres away.
The rapid turnaround gained praise from high places, not least from Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) chief executive Andy Samuel, who remarked that the company’s “continued success reinforces the tremendous potential of the UKCS, which Apache is unlocking using advanced data gathering and analytics.” So, what was the secret behind the company’s success in bringing such significant new levels of production on stream in such rapid fashion?
The answer, according to senior personnel involved in the project, lies in a mix of planning, pragmatism, engagement and empowerment.
“When we first drilled Garten we knew we had something very special, and we were very excited by it.”
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“When we first drilled Garten we knew we had something very special, and we were very excited by it,” says operations and projects director Mark Hobbs. “Knowing we had something material for Apache as a company, we were able to focus on work which had previously been done.”
Apache initially believed it could bring Garten online in 12 months but – based in part on the operator’s experience with its Callater development, which moved from discovery to production in around a year – Mark challenged the project team to do even better, resulting in the company moving its first oil date forward from Q1 2019 to Q4 2018. “That is the Apache way – we strive to push expectations amongst our leadership team and our employees to see what they can do. It was a massive undertaking, but everyone was up for it,” he says.
Personal empowerment for project staff was also crucial to the process. Mark continues: “Everyone knows the role they play in the organisation, and my role as a leader and manager is to facilitate our operations as best I can – my job is to get approvals through quickly and empower the team to get after the job in hand, so they can achieve in the set timelines and in a safe manner.”
Garten, in which Apache has a 100% working interest, is one of several exploration success stories for Apache that have been catalysed by the 2012 acquisition of 3D broadband seismic survey data for a 1,500 square km area around Beryl.
“We wanted to cover all of the development acreage and the surrounding open exploration acreage under one uniform survey,” adds region exploitation and exploration manager Jeff Towart. “Since the mid-1990s there had been a hiatus in seismic acquisition and exploration drilling in the Beryl area. But it was known to be very prolific and our view was that, with modern data and a new set of eyes, we could find new opportunities.”
Jeff says Beryl data had previously been made up of a “patchwork” of overlapping 3D surveys of varying vintages and parameters. “Having not just the latest seismic technology, but also a uniform survey that stretches across the whole asset area, has been really beneficial to us. We have been able to take old ideas and re-risk them to the point that we could drill with confidence,” he adds.
“There were lots of great ideas from previous times that were never drilled – the uplift in seismic gave us confidence, allied to an Apache culture and strategy which is all about extending field life and maximising the economic value of our assets.”
Apache used the data to build a portfolio of opportunities across both exploration and development as part of a wider strategy to focus its activities on prospects close to operating facilities and leverage the value of its existing infrastructure. This process has proved rewarding; an exploration programme which began in 2015 has produced three significant commercial discoveries in the Beryl area: Garten, Callater and Storr.
“Having three successful exploration wells already, over a four-year period, is pretty remarkable in the North Sea at the moment.”
Delivering at pace
With Garten and Callater already producing, Storr is very much the project of focus for 2019. Work is already under way on the multi-well subsea development and it is scheduled to be online by the end of the year.
With plans to drill at least one exploration well in 2019 and several more in subsequent years, Jeff says it’s illustrative that the strategy is paying off. “Having three successful exploration wells already, over a four-year period, is pretty remarkable in the North Sea at the moment.”
He says one of the key factors behind recent accomplishments is Apache’s decision to deliver via small teams empowered to “get after” projects. “Particularly on the geoscience side, we work as a single team across both development and exploration, and the learnings and knowledge we gain can be shared across the project environment.”
With Garten specifically, he says pre-drill evaluation work gave the team confidence in its risking of the prospect. The fast-lane route to production, he adds, was also fuelled by several other key factors.
Perhaps most notably, the exploration well was designed to be developed as a producer in the event of success. The surface location of the well lies also adjacent to a tie-in point on the pipeline linking the Apache-operated Buckland field to Beryl, streamlining the tie-in process. Mark adds that it was “a very happy coincidence” that the well and an intermediate tow-head from the Buckland bundle were in close proximity, which made it easier for them to capitalise on existing infrastructure. It also sat well with the team’s decision, made very early on, to tie Garten into the Buckland bundle if pressures allowed.
Jeff also highlights the advantages of having a single integrated team working the project through from exploration to development. This was the concept of the small, empowered team model: it allowed for a seamless process through the project and did not require transitions from different teams. This characterises much of Apache’s project delivery – Jeff notes that a similar model was used on Callater and is now being used on the Storr development.
In addition, Mark says that Apache engaged with Beryl area partners, the OGA, HSE and other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity, allowing them to work through issues ranging from commercial negotiations to field development plans, safety cases and environmental statements as efficiently as possible. It is a theme which runs through the successful developments of recent years, both in Apache and the industry at large.
“All of those take time, but what we did early on was understand our timelines and then challenge those norms through our co-operation with bodies like the OGA,” he explains. “It was quickly clear that they were more than willing to work hand-in-glove with us to try to reduce some of the nominal timelines. They could see the value of Garten and what it meant in terms of the maximising economic recovery agenda.”
“Our work with all these organisations meant we were able to come up with a critical path which challenged the norms,” he adds.
From there, the team adopted a pragmatic approach. “The value to Apache lies in getting tie-ins like Garten back as quickly as possible, using existing infrastructure and tried-and-tested solutions,” says Mark. “That has a big impact in terms of front-end design timescales in particular, unlocking a lot of value in terms of the speed in which things can be delivered.”
That is not to say that the operator works alone. Apache has fostered close, long-term relationships with many of its tier 1 contractors, suppliers and vendors as well, which Mark believes contributed to the speed of the turnaround. “We have trust in our supply chain, and that element of trust has enabled us to work quickly and efficiently,” he says.
Because of that mutual understanding, “there’s no need for man-marking or constant checking. There is an appreciation out there that Apache wants things delivered both safely and at pace.”
The project team worked to highly compressed timescales during the summer 2018 construction campaign ahead of an autumn commissioning phase that spanned just over three weeks. Mark affirms that, because Apache has been able to progress quickly by keeping things simple and using as much existing infrastructure as possible, its rate of return on such North Sea projects is globally competitive.
In that context, Garten was the best well drilled globally by Apache in 2018. “The speed at which we could bring it in, and its rate of return, supports the global aspirations of Apache. We are able to deliver very impactful projects in very short timeframes that materially impact the company as a whole.”
Material gains
Both Mark and Jeff point to the application of a three-zone smart well completion as an example of how advanced technology has supported the securing of project objectives, allowing Apache to fully understand reservoir characteristics for all three zones, maximise reserves and optimise reservoir management.
This also enabled the team to understand the reservoir in the context of future water injection programmes to support longer-term production. Further production wells are also being considered. “There’s a tremendous message here for our workforce and for the industry – [that] this is material, and we are delivering a huge amount of production,” adds Mark. “We’re a strong business that continues to hold its own against younger competitors, and there is plenty of upside as long as we manage costs. If we keep bringing in new oil prospects, we’ll stay very competitive regionally, if not globally.”
Mark is clear that Apache aims to sustain its business in the North Sea, where its activities primarily centre upon the Forties and Beryl fields. “The company understands the value of what the North Sea delivers and because of that, it wants to keep investing here in the future,” he says. “Both Forties and Beryl present big opportunities; they will be around for at least another 15 years, probably longer.”
“Our goal is to get to 2040 with Forties, and that is completely achievable. Beryl, meanwhile, is one of the most exciting exploration areas in the North Sea and we’re working hard to exploit that potential.”
