UK: Ithaca hands in decommissioning plan for Jacky field

North Sea-focused Ithaca Energy, a subsidiary of Delek Group, has submitted its draft decommissioning program for the Jacky field in the UK sector of the North Sea to the UK authorities.

Jacky is a low GOR Oil reservoir lying in block 12/21c of the UK sector of the Central North Sea, and was proven by the drilling and testing of the 12/21c-6 appraisal well in May 2007.

The field was developed as a tie back to the existing Beatrice Area facilities in 2008-09 when the appraisal well was re-entered and completed as production well (12/21c – J01) with first oil achieved in April 2009. Production ceased in 2014 due to declining rates and equipment failures.

The facilities in the Jacky field comprise the Jacky wellhead platform which is a normally unattended installation (NUI) positioned over the well locations with a topsides production tree and production manifold in 40m water depth.

Production was exported through a platform riser and subsea pipeline to the Beatrice Alpha (AP) platform. The installation also included a water injection well (12/21c – J02) with facilities consisting of a water injection tree and header with injection water provided from Beatrice Alpha (AP) by subsea pipeline.

A further appraisal well (12/21c – J03) was drilled and was suspended. There are also production and water injection spur pipelines via a mid-line tee structure which supported the Beatrice Bravo installation.

According to the draft decommissioning plan, the platform & midline tee structure will be removed and transported to shore for re-use or recycling.

Furthermore, subsea wells will be plugged and abandoned using a jack-up drilling rig. Pipelines are trenched and buried and will remain in situ. The work to decommission the Jacky field installation and pipelines will be largely completed from a diving support vessel (DSV) or a heavy lift vessel (HLV).