Girish Kabra, Spirit Energy’s Director for North Sea operated assets, said: “We achieved first gas from the well on 25 August. The production is in line with subsurface prognosis and pre-drill estimates.

“The commercial discovery is important for Grove as it opens up future growth opportunities in and around the licence blocks. The discovery adds volumes and prolongs the Grove field life from 2022 to at least 2028,” Mr Kabra added.

The well targeted an unappraised north eastern segment of the Grove field. The volume range will be updated after the well has been onstream for a while and production data are gathered and analysed.

Mr Kabra said: “The project was sanctioned in a relatively low gas price environment in 2020 to support the supply chain activities through the Covid pandemic. Drilling was made possible by efforts of our team and supply chain partners to reduce drilling costs and through the re-use of facilities, which also contributed to lowering the carbon intensity. The Grove well demonstrates ability to deliver life extension opportunities in the North Sea basin, as we did with the Chestnut and York fields.”

The well was drilled by the ‘Maersk Resolve’, a heavy-duty jack-up rig from Maersk Drilling.