Offshore staff
LONDON – Oil & Gas UK has issued new guidelines aimed at simplifying subsea developments, which it hopes will boost prospects for undeveloped “small pools” in the North Sea.
Subsea Standardisation – Guidelines for Adopting a Simplified and Fit for Purpose Approach is the result of research by the Efficiency Task Force’s Subsea Technology Workgroup, comprising 31 multi-disciplinary companies and led by Steve Duthie of TechnipFMC.
The team found that by applying their work theoretically to various existing and proposed North Sea developments, they could achieve potential cost savings of up to 25%.
Oil & Gas UK estimates that there are more than 3 Bbbl of oil stranded in around 350 small reserves (less than 50 MMbbl) that are at present too costly to develop, but that could be brought online through improvements in design optimization, field layouts, and manufacturing.
Group member Centrica offered one of its prospects, thePegasus West gas field in the southern North Sea, for review. Results showed that savings of 20-25% were feasible.
Stephen Marcos Jones, business excellence director at Oil & Gas UK, said: “As an industry, we’ve become used to gold-plating and over-specifying our work. The Subsea Standardisation Project demonstrates how adopting a more simplified approach can make subsea development far more affordable.
“This project is a shining example of what can be achieved when industry experts are given the license to innovate, share knowledge, and tackle project delivery with fresh eyes. ‘Collaboration’ is a word banded about a lot, but this is it in action.
“We hope that by taking on board these guidelines, companies will be able to unlock new reserves and in doing so help theUK continental shelf reach its full potential.”
The association says the new guidelines could also be used alongside the Project Collaboration Toolkit, recently developed by Britain’s Engineering Construction Industry Training Board. This sets forth principles for collaboration work and is endorsed by Oil & Gas UK and the Offshore Contractors Association.
02/08/2017
