Xcite Energy secures storage and offtake/shuttle tanker for Bentley oil field

Xcite Energy (LON:XEL, CVE:XEL) has secured a storage and offtake/shuttle tanker for the forthcoming Phase 1A of the Bentley heavy oil field development programme.

The various parts of the company’s plan for the field in the North Sea are slotting together. Only last week it announced that the Rowan Norway rig, which will be used to develop Bentley heavy, was on hire.

Once the rig is kitted out for the new job, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has given the sign-off for the field development plan, the rig can be deployed – and this is currently expected to occur early February 2012.

At the beginning of December, Xcite revealed that the first stage production programme for the field would be split into two parts.  The revised plan means that Xcite can still achieve first oil next year, as it originally planned, with phase 1B planned for 2013 and Phase 2 pencilled in to start in 2016.

Authored by Andre Lamberti

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