Greater Stella Area

The Greater Stella Area

The Ithaca Energy operated Greater Stella Area is located in the heart of the Central Graben area of the Central North Sea, on the UK Continental Shelf. It is an area surrounded by various large producing fields, predominantly operated by the Majors, and numerous undeveloped discoveries.

The Greater Stella Area licences contain the Stella and Harrier fields, both of which are in production, and the Vorlich field, which is currently in the process of being developed. The Company also owns operated interests in a number of satellite fields that are planned for development via the hub infrastructure, being the Hurricane, Austen and Courageous discoveries.

The Company's focus on the Greater Stella Area is driven by monetisation of over 60 million barrels of oil equivalent of net proven and probable reserves (as independently assessed by Sproule International Limited) and the generation of additional value via the wider opportunities provided by the range of undeveloped discoveries surrounding the production hub.

Development Overview

Production commenced from the Stella field in early 2017 and from Harrier in 2018. The development involved the drilling of subsea wells tied back to the Ithaca Energy owned and operated “FPF-1” floating production facility, with the onward export of oil into the ConocoPhillips-operated “Norpipe” system and gas into the Kellas Midstream-operated “CATS” system. Development of the Vorlich Field is ongoing following formal approval of the Field Development Plan which was granted in September 2018. Vorlich is being jointly developed with BP.

The Stella Field

The Stella field lies approximately 158 miles (255 km) East of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the Central Graben Area of the Central North Sea in water depths of about 295 feet (90 m)

Discovered in 1979 in Block 30/6-2, the Stella field comprises the Stella Andrew sandstone reservoir containing light oil and rich gas condensate and the Stella Ekofisk reservoir containing a volatile oil.

Since the discovery well, seven subsequent appraisal reservoir penetrations were made on Stella including the final appraisal wells drilled by Ithaca in 2010.

Five development wells were drilled between 2013 and 2015 to allow production from both reservoirs to commence.

Ithaca Energy holds a 100 percent interest in the Stella field.

The Harrier Field

The Harrier field lies approximately 158 miles (255 km) East of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the Central Graben Area of the Central North Sea in water depths of about 295 feet (90 m).

Discovered in 2003 in Block 30/6-4, the field comprises the Harrier Ekofisk and Harrier Tor chalk reservoirs, both containing gas condensate.

Ithaca Energy drilled a dual lateral fracture stimulated multilateral development well in 2018 to access both the Harrier Tor and Ekofisk reservoir intervals to enable production from the field to start up in mid-2018.

Ithaca Energy holds a 100 percent interest in the Harrier field.

Stella and Harrier are about 7 km apart, but equidistant from Aberdeen.

The Vorlich Field

The Vorlich field lies approximately 88 miles (241 km) east of Aberdeen, Scotland in the Central North Sea in water depths of about 262 feet (80 m).

Discovered and appraised in 2014 in Block 30/1c and jointly developed with BP, first production from the field was in November 2020.

The Vorlich field contains hydrocarbons in a Palaeocene sandstone reservoir and production is via 2 wells tied back to the FPF-1 floating production facility, which lies at the centre of the Greater Stella Area production hub.

Ithaca holds a 34% working interest in the Vorlich field (its partner, BP holds a 66% working interest).