ATP Oil & Gas defers Octabuoy hull construction costs

Offshore staff

HOUSTON -- ATP Oil & Gas Corp. has amended its agreement with COSCO Nantong Shipyard to defer $99 million in construction costs for the Octabuoy hull. The deferral will be supported by a Letter of Insurance issued by the China Export and Credit Insurance Corp. The Octabuoy, including the hull, topsides, and related equipment, will serve as the floating production and drilling facility at ATP’s Cheviot field (blocks 2/10b, 2/15a and 3/1) in the UK North Sea. ATP has a 100% working interest in the Cheviot field and is the operator.

The Octabuoy, designed by Moss Maritime, is a semisubmersible dry-tree-completion production processing unit designed for oil storage in the columns. The specially shaped hull provides more favorable motion characteristics when compared to conventional semisubmersibles, ATP says. The hull contract is currently 65% complete.

With a production/processing capacity of 25 MMb/d and 50 MMcf/d, an ability to work in water depths from 500 to 9,500 ft (152 to 2,896 m), and a useful life of approximately 50 years, the Octabuoy will be readily re-locatable to other fields around the world after it has produced the Cheviot reserves, the company says.

“This transaction advances construction of the Octabuoy hull on pace for a 2011 delivery and facilitates ATP’s objective to achieve first oil at Cheviot in 2012,” says Leland E. Tate, ATP’s president.

10/02/2009