Offshore staff
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Maersk Oil has started production from its new platform on the Halfdan field in the Danish North Sea.
In the same sector, the company is drilling or planning additional wells at the Dan, Tyra and Valdemar fields to offset declining production.
At the Gryphon field in the UK sector, production was reinstated this spring after storm damage caused the FPSO to be taken off location for repairs. Maersk says it believes the loss of production and property damage is recoverable under existing insurance policies.
In June, the company approved operator Nexen’s plan for a $1-billion development of the Golden Eagle area fields. Construction of a platform and other infrastructure will begin late this year, with the aim of achieving start-up in 2014.
Maersk is involved as an operator or partner in ongoing appraisal wells to determine the extent of the Culzean, Jackdaw, Hobby, and Courageous discoveries, with two to three more wells lined up in UK waters later this year. The company also has sanctioned appraisal wells for this year to assess the Zidane and T-Rex discoveries in the Norwegian sector.
Off Angola, Maersk plans to start drilling two appraisal wells shortly on the Chissonga discovery in block 16, and to undertake commercial evaluation of the field. An exploration well on block 23 got under way in June 2011 and another is planned for block 8 next year.
In March, Maersk gained approval from Brazil’s authorities to acquire an interest in offshore license BM-C-34. Two exploration wells should be drilled here later in 2011.
Finally, in Qatar, expansion of the offshore Al Shaheen field continues and 165 out of the 169 planned wells have been completed. Maersk continues to evaluate the field’s potential with Qatar Petroleum; for the time being, production should remain at around 300,000 b/d of oil.
08/18/2011
