Serica restarts production at Rhum after underwater fault

North Sea-focussed upstream oil and gas company Serica Energy confirmed on Thursday that production had restarted from the Rhum field.

The AIM-traded firm said the restart followed the successful operation with a diving support vessel to replace a faulty component in the Rhum subsea control module, which necessitated a temporary shutdown of production.

It said the work was completed without incident, despite difficult weather conditions.

Production from the Bruce field had continued throughout, the board said, while Serica's other producing fields at Erskine and Columbus were not impacted by the Rhum issue.

During the Rhum outage, the company's average net production was in excess of 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

“This was a difficult operation at water depths of over 100 metres in a period of challenging weather conditions,” said chief executive officer Mitch Flegg.

“Our skilled teams onshore and offshore have planned and executed the work programme safely and efficiently - this has been an outstanding effort.

“During the Rhum shutdown we have been able to optimise the Bruce production rates, which has helped to minimise cash flow reduction from this production deferral.”

At 1218 GMT, shares in Serica Energy were up 4.92% at 356.73p.