RE: Make Serica Great Again9 Feb 2025 16:09
Copied over from Serica Energy’s linkedin page :
Martin Copeland posted :
Thanks Upstream and Rebecca Conan for publishing my observations on the critical ongoing North Sea consultations, extracts of which below:
Martin Copeland, CFO of the leading UK independent, was unequivocal about which of the scheduled consultations would have the biggest impact on Serica’s business, telling Upstream on Thursday: “The EPL could have an immediate impact and allow us to do more investment essentially.”
“The industry is pushing to revert back to the 40% we had previously and I think the government is generally supportive of that alongside coming up with a mechanism for how we share on the upside,” Copeland said on the sidelines of the Pareto Securities event in London.
The EPL was designed to fall away by 2030 or in the event of a simultaneous drop in crude and natural gas prices below a minimum floor over a six-month period, a situation analysts say is highly unlikely. For operators such as Serica that produce oil and gas, Copeland suggests that each UK North Sea field could be designated as either an oil or gas producer for the purposes of the new mechanism, providing an easy solution for cross commodity operators.
“If the government doesn’t allow us to keep extending the life of these assets, they are on the hook for 50% of the decommissioning bill and that comes rushing towards them; they have to be careful,” he said.
Maintenance of the first-year capital allowances has kept alive some investment projects that would otherwise have been shelved, industry has said.
Serica plans to invest $50 million this year across the Bruce platform and the Triton floating production, storage and offloading vessel as part of its strategy to enhance asset resilience and extend the life of the ageing infrastructure through 2035.
These investment “are only possible,” due to maintenance of the allowance, Copeland said.
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