Serica Energy plc

("Serica" or the "Company")

Rhum Production Restart

London, 17 March 2022 - Serica Energy plc (AIM: SQZ), a British independent upstream oil and gas company with operations centred on the UK North Sea, provides an update on Rhum field production operations.

Further to our announcement of 28 February, we are pleased to confirm that production has restarted from the Rhum field following the successful operation with a Diving Support Vessel ("DSV") to replace a faulty component in the Rhum Subsea Control Module which had necessitated a temporary shutdown of Rhum production. The work was completed without incident despite the difficult weather conditions encountered.

Production from the Bruce field has continued throughout these operations and Serica's other producing fields (Erskine and Columbus) were not impacted by this Rhum issue. During the Rhum outage, the company's average net production has been in excess of 15,000 boe/d.

Mitch Flegg, Chief Executive of Serica Energy, commented:

"This was a difficult operation at water depths of over 100 metres in a period of challenging weather conditions. 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."

Regulatory 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014, as retained in the UK pursuant to S3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. 

The technical information contained in the announcement has been reviewed and approved by Fergus Jenkins, VP Technical at Serica Energy plc. Mr. Jenkins (MEng in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) is a Chartered Engineer with over 25 years of experience in oil & gas exploration, development and production and is a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

NOTES TO EDITORS 

Serica Energy is a British independent oil and gas exploration and production company with a portfolio of exploration, development and production assets. 

Serica is the operator of the producing Bruce, Keith and Rhum fields in the UK Northern North Sea, holding interests of 98%, 100% and 50% respectively, and holds a 50% operated interest in the Columbus field in the UK Central North Sea. Serica also holds an 18% non-operated interest in the producing Erskine field in the UK Central North Sea.

Over 85% of Serica's production is natural gas, a key element in the UK's energy transition. 

The Rhum Subsea Control Module (SCM) is located on the seabed in the vicinity of the Rhum wells, approximately 40km north of the Bruce platform.  The SCM provides power and controls required to operate the Rhum wells.

Further information on the Company can be found at www.serica-energy.com. 

The Company's shares are traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker SQZ, and the Company is a designated foreign issuer on the TSX. To receive Company news releases via email, please subscribe via the Company website.