Offshore staff

CALGARY, Canada -- The semisub Sedco 704 is being anchored on location over the Athena field in the UK North Sea, ahead of a 180-day development drilling campaign.

According to operator Ithaca Energy, the program will comprise drilling of a water injector well, a fourth producer, and completion of the field’s three suspended appraisal wells as producers. The four producer wells will be equipped with downhole submersible pumps to maximize field production rates. Initial output from Athena should reach 22,500 b/d of oil.

Transocean subsidiary Applied Drilling Technology International will manage the program on a ‘turnkey’ basis.

Installations of in-field pipelines and subsea manifolds will get under way this summer.

The FPSO BW Athena is at dockside in Dubai and preparation works have started to re-certify existing equipment and install new equipment. During spring, the vessel will be dry docked to install a turret mooring section amidships, extending the FPSO by around 65 ft (19.8 m). Steelwork for the mooring section is being prepared alongside the dry dock.

All activities should be completed this summer, allowing the vessel to head to UK waters and arrive on location by end-September. Installation of the FPSO to the mooring buoy, hook-up and commissioning will all be completed ahead of targeted first oil in Q4 2011.

Both BW Offshore’s site office and the Ithaca representative’s office in Dubai are manned and operational.

01/12/2011