Breagh gas project gets formal approval

Offshore staff

HAMBURG, Germany -- Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has approved RWE Dea UK’s development plan for the Breagh gas field in the southern North Sea.

“The FDP approval is a hugely significant achievement for our Breagh gas field development,” said Ralf to Baben, COO of RWE Dea. “It is an essential element for the realization of our strategic target to boost RWE Dea’s annual gas and oil production to more than 70 MMboe by 2016.”

René Pawel, RWE Dea UK’s managing director, added: “It means that RWE Dea UK remains on course to achieve production from the Breagh field less than three years after we acquired operatorship of the Breagh license.”

The development is already well advanced. Around 100 km (62 mi) of 20-in. (51-cm) pipeline have been laid offshore and the platform, under construction by Heerema Vlissingen in the Netherlands, should be installed by Heerema Marine Contractors in early September. It will comprise an 85-m (279-ft) high jacket weighing 4,000 tons, with topsides of around 1,400 tons.

Breagh field is in UK blocks 42/12a and 42/13a in 62 m (203 ft) water depth, 100 km east of Teesside, northeast England. The field is being developed in two phases. Phase I will export gas via the 20-in.pipeline from the Breagh Alpha platform to Coatham Sands, Redcar, on the UK mainland, and to a 10-km (6.2-mi) onshore pipeline for processing at the Teesside Gas Processing Plant (TGPP) at Seal Sands.

After processing at the TGPP, the gas will enter the UK’s National Transmission System. FDP approval for Breagh Phase II, expected in early 2012, will include additional wells in the east of the field drilled from another new platform, Breagh Bravo, tied back to Alpha.

RWE Dea has a 70% operated interest in Breagh, the remainder held by Sterling Resources UK. The gas field is a conventional carboniferous reservoir, with further upside potential in the surrounding exploration blocks.

07/26/2011