Benefit from a short whitepaper which reviews two recent presentations by senior representatives at EnQuest and Wintershall. The whitepaper looks at their approaches towards improving production efficiencies regarding their North Sea interests. The report shares critical insight, including: - A review of EnQuest’s production optimisation model currently being used in the North Sea to improve current operations - A look at the planning that is going into extending the lifetime of Brage and how Wintershall are taking steps towards improving production - Future considerations and development plans for EnQuest and Wintershall within the North Sea

1. IMPROVING OFFSHORE PRODUCTION
By Offshore Network
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2. IMPROVING OFFSHORE PRODUCTION
The average recovery rate of hydrocarbons within the North Sea currently stands at approximately
66% with 34% or reserves being unrecovered. According to the Department of Energy & Climate
Change (DECC 2014), total oil production from offshore fields in the North Sea between 1975 to
2013 stood at 3.32 billion metric tonnes (MT) - this means that approximately 2.21 billion (MT) of
oil remained unrecovered in offshore reservoirs. This figure represents a substantial economic loss,
which compounded by a general decline in remaining conventional reserves, increased environmental
awareness and adverse international geopolitical events, has incited stakeholders in the upstream oil
and gas sector to seek methods of optimising production processes.
The Offshore Production Optimisation Conference (OPO 2014) in November 2014 brought together
operators, service companies’ and production experts to analyse the past, present and future
developments of optimisation processes involved in offshore hydrocarbon production. The scope of
topics presented were not limited to engineering disciplines associated with reservoirs and production
facilities, but also included presentations on the global financial perspective as well as an emphasis
on the significance of hydrodynamic reservoir support, research and development and adaptation of
existing technologies such as computational fluid dynamics for use in optimisation procedures.
This document will outline presentations given by two North Sea operators and covers the challenges
that they faced and the solutions they used to overcome these issues. The presentations reviewed
are:
1. Optimising Production in the North Sea: An Operators Perspective:
Neil McCulloch, President, North Sea, EnQuest
2. Brage Case Study Planning For The Future:
Alv Bjørn Solheim, Technical Director and Deputy Managing Director, Wintershall
For any queries regarding this whitepaper, please feel free to drop me an email:
Dean Murphy
Director | Offshore Network Ltd.
t: +44 (0) 203 468 9461
e: dmurphy@offsnet.com

3. PAGE 3Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
Optimising Production in the North Sea: An Operators Perspective: Neil McCulloch,
President, North Sea, EnQuest
The Wood Review
The UKCS Maximising Economic Recovery Review by Sir Ian Wood published in 2014 widely referred
to as the Wood Review was used as reference to highlight the challenges associated with producing
the remaining 10 -24 billion barrels of oil reserves remaining within the North Sea. It was noted that
production optimisation is an end result of collaboration between three major parties;
1. Government
2. Operators
3. Supply Chain
As a result, optimisation would be a difficult endeavour to achieve if the current operating
relationships between these parties remained unaltered as it had the potential to result in
the prolific squandering of reserves and the possible abandonment of remaining North Sea
infrastructure prematurely hence resulting in the inevitable loss of recoverable reserves.
Based on the premise of achieving optimisation EnQuest pledged its support for the guidance
offered in the Wood Review and added that industry needed to work together to achieve the
following:
Government Operators Suppliers
Bring certainty
Working
collaboratively
Quality
Reduce complexity
Assets in the right
hands
Improve efficiency/
reduce waste
Stimulate investment
Access to
infastructure
Lower marginal costs
Recommendations to achieve production optimisation (Enquest 2014)

4. PAGE 4Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
A Production Optimisation Model
The results of the 2013 operator efficiency study conducted by the UK North Sea Production
Efficiency Task Force placed EnQuest within the upper quartile of all operators in the region
with a production efficiency of greater than 80%. EnQuest were able to achieve this milestone
despite the following challenges:
• Difficulties in the acquisition or use of existing infrastructure and other transportation
facilities
• Increasing operational expenditure
• Operating mature assets within fields with high water cuts
• Increasing reserve to production expenditures
These challenges meant that EnQuest had to develop a methodology to stabilise operational
expenditure whilst simultaneously boosting brownfield production. This was accomplished as
follows:
Asset transfer
Invest Capital Expenditure
Modify and Simplify operational processes
Removal of bad actors from the supply chain
Focus on utilisation and development of inhouse expertise
The model shown above represents EnQuest’s belief in asset transfer where facilities such
as production platforms with declining production efficiencies could be transferred to other
operators. This would allow other oil companies who are able to invest capital and optimise
production rates through the simplification of processes, removal of bad actors in the supply
chain and the utilization and development of in-house expertise to execute project works
effectively.

5. PAGE 5Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
EnQuest Case Study
An example where EnQuest’s optimisation model was successfully applied was given as the
Thistle production platform, which was commissioned in 1978. On initiation of the late life
extension project, Thistle was producing 3000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). By applying the
EnQuest optimisation model, production was increased to daily peaks of 18,000 barrels and
in the first half of 2014 stood at an average of approximately 10,000 bopd with a production
efficiency of 84%. This is a fantastic achievement.
Future Considerations
Following the presentation, EnQuest urged operators to adopt the “My Industry” rather
than “My Company” approach to operations. This was proposed as a means of solving many
challenges faced by operators in the North Sea especially as it assured improvements between
operator to operator and operator to supply chain relationships. In addition, EnQuest also
suggested that Governments should stop chasing unrealistic windfalls and agree to sustainable
profit margins for operators within the North Sea region. The results of these measures would
not only allow production optimisation to be achieved but also ensure that the remaining North
Sea reserves are produced and the corresponding economic value acquired.

6. PAGE 6Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
Brage Case Study Planning For The Future: Alv Bjørn Solheim, Technical Director and
Deputy Managing Director, Wintershall
Brage Acquisition Process
Wintershall, established in the oil and gas business since 1930, is one of the largest oil
producers in Germany. Within the last decade Wintershall has begun to expand operations into
the Norwegian sector of the UKCS oil reserves via the acquisition of Revus Energy in 2008. Since
then, Wintershall has expanded economically by embarking on a series of licence agreements,
asset based acquisitions and joint ventures primarily with Statoil. This was done in order to
achieve the following objectives:
• Diversification and establishment of operations within the Norwegian energy sector
• Increase profitability of acquired assets via production optimisation processes
• Enhance in-house expertise in the areas of deep water hydrocarbon production and advanced
subsea systems
Moby Dick Initiated
May 2011
Agree Scope
Project Kick Off
Asset Reports
Operatorship
Requirements
Execute SPA’s
Pegasus Initiated
April 2012
Data Rooms
Operatorship
Discussions
Bid
Completion
Wintershall Operator
Systematic approach to Brage acquisition (Wintershall 2014)
The above infographic outlines recent steps taken by Wintershall to acquire the Brage offshore
platform and field license in 2013. The Brage platform was commissioned in 1993 and has a
production capacity of 120,000 bopd with current production rates standing at 11,000 bopd.
Future post life extension initiatives on the Brage platform and field is expected to maintain
oil production up to the year 2030 with forecasted rates sitting at a high of 20,000 bopd with
15,000 bopd being the median long term production target.

7. PAGE 7Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
Wintershall Optimisation Approach
Brage Facilities
In order to optimise production rates from Brage, Wintershall spoke about a number of
proposed activities they had in place in order to do this:
• Invest capital expenditure on corrosion inhibition and insulation upgrade exercises
• Replace process control systems and upgrade production technology
• Use additional template and subsea tie back systems to produce oil deposits beyond the current
8400m platform drilling limit
Brage Field
Wintershall are currently conducting research and development activities into a biopolymer
that is capable of effectively increasing the extraction of oil from high temperature, high salinity
reservoirs. Field test are currently being conducted in onshore wells in Germany Bockstedt and are
yielding positive results. However some difficulty is envisioned with respect to offshore applications
in terms of transportation of the biopolymer from manufacturing locations onshore to the wells.
Research is still continuing in this area of reservoir production optimisation and several options
including manufacturing the biopolymer in a powder form for offshore use is being examined.
Challenges to the Optimisation Process
The facilities upgrade procedure presented by Wintershall was challenged with respect to the
fact that during the planned upgrades to Brage production platform, no mention was made
of process simplification, considering that the initial process design catered for maximum
production rates of 120,000 bopd whereas projected rates stood at a maximum of 20,000 bopd.
Feedback given was that Wintershall’s focus fell within two categories:
1. Maximise Production
2. Increase control over cost
With respect to cost control, priority was said to be given to the review and revision of
maintenance systems aboard the Brage production platform, and alternate measures pertaining
to the process may be considered at a later stage.
Future Development Plans
With respect to future development plans, Wintershall expressed interest in partnering with
companies that would add value to their assets and help contribute to the enhancement of
expertise between operators.

8. PAGE 8Offshore Network Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company Registered Number 8702032
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