Offshore staff

CALGARY, Canada – Production from the Buzzard field in the UK central North Sea was restricted to114,000 boe/d during the 2Q 2011.

According to operator Nexen Petroleum, this was due to unscheduled repairs to a cooling system, and interruptions to a third-party operated gas export pipeline causing oil production to be constrained to minimize gas flaring.

However, Nexen used this downtime to bring forward maintenance work originally scheduled for September.

Repairs of the cooling system and completion of start-up of Buzzard’s fourth platform continue, although that facility will also be taken down in early August ahead of a one-week shutdown of the third-party Forties pipeline.
Thereafter, full rates from Buzzard should be restored, with the fourth platform, and its sour service treatment facilities, allowing higher numbers of producer wells to be brought onstream.

Elsewhere in the central North Sea, Nexen expects further production increases after tying in the Telford TAC well to the Scott platform, and the Blackbird field to the Ettrick FPSO. The Endeavour-operated Rochelle tieback will further lift output from Scott next year.

The approval process for Nexen’s next hub development in the area, Golden Eagle, is progressing – the company expects to receive all remaining partner and regulatory approvals later this summer.

Over the next 12 months, the company plans to drill an appraisal of the Polecat discovery and other exploration prospects, including North Uist west of Shetland.

07/14/2011