Offshore staff

CALGARY, Canada -- Nexen is upgrading the cooling system at one of its Buzzard field platforms in the UK central North Sea.

Replacement of the cooling medium should be completed by end-May. Until then, the field’s production will be limited to around 80,000 boe/d.

Nexen expects to increase output steadily through June and July, reaching full capacity of over 200,000 boe/d towards end-July as the upgraded coolers are installed and commissioning of a fourth platform is completed.

To offset the production shortfall from brief periods of downtime during the work, the company will re-align a two-week turnaround previously scheduled for September. Some of this work will be brought forward. A five-day outage is also due in August to support third-party work on the Forties Pipeline.

05/20/2011