Perenco Restarts Davy Gas Production in UK North Sea

Perenco said Friday it has resumed natural gas production at the Davy field in United Kingdom waters five years after shut-in.

"Earmarked for decommissioning following several failed restarts in 2021, Perenco UK has completed a comprehensive revival project with production from Davy wells A3 and A5 restarting in late April 2026", Perenco said in a press release. "Combined production from both platforms is now online and producing into Perenco’s Bacton terminal at a stable rate of approximately 14 MMscf/d [million standard cubic feet per day].

"The comprehensive work program, which clearly demonstrates Perenco's ability to safely prolong field life, entailed a significant simplification from the original 1970s' design, as well as material equipment upgrades, including the installation of a wind turbine.

"In addition, partial decommissioning of non-productive wells has been achieved with the plugging and abandonment of 2 platform wells and 2 subsea wells.

"The simplified Davy platform is now powered predominantly by wind energy rather than diesel generation, so the operation is now continuing with a lower carbon footprint".

Jo White, Perenco general manager for the UK southern Noth Sea, said, "Davy is set to continue to produce for several years to come, and to operate reliably and with lower OPEX [operating expenditure] following the recent work program".

Earlier this year Perenco completed the acquisition of Saturn Banks assets already connected to Perenco infrastructure and which it plans to further develop through the Bacton terminal on the Norfolk coast.

"The transaction involved the purchase of CalEnergy North Sea Ltd & CalEnergy Infrastructure Ltd, renamed Perenco SNS Ltd & Perenco UK Infrastructure Ltd, respectively, and the corresponding 50 percent participating interest in, and operatorship of, the Blythe and Elgood licenses", Perenco said in an online statement April 8.

"In the medium term we will look for ways to enhance production and reduce unit operating costs, including by bringing the Blythe H2 well into our LAPS compressor within the coming year", White said, referring to the Lancelot Area Production System.

According to Perenco's announcement of the deal November 12, 2025, the plan for the acquisition includes a further Saturn Banks tieback to its existing LAPS compressor at the Bacton terminal. The tieback would "increase production rates, enable the restart of shut-in wells and extend the life of the assets", Perenco said then.

As of the November announcement, one of Blythe's two wells and Elgood's single well were shut in. Blythe, which has a normally unmanned platform, was at the time producing at a rate of six million cubic feet through the other well, Perenco said. Elgood is a tieback to Blythe. Both fields started producing gas 2022 via a new connection to the Bacton terminal through the reused Thames pipeline.

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