Offshore staff
LONDON – Premier Oil expects to start production next month from its Catcher project in the UK central North Sea.
TheFPSOBW Catcher reached the offshore location in mid-October with the production buoy subsequently pulled into the hull. The full hook-up process is virtually complete, following connection and installation of the risers, umbilicals, and installation of the emergency shutdown valves.
The swivel stack is in place along with the geostationary pipework, and the final rotation test should proceed soon. Testing of the offloading interface with the cargo tanker is also under way.
Current commissioning activities include running of main power generation, chemical bunkering, system filling, shutdown system testing, and system leak testing.
Development drilling is ahead of schedule. The eight producer and four injector wells planned prior to first oil have been completed and tied back to the FPSO, with work on the Phase 2 wells ongoing.
Total capex for the project should come in at $1.6 billion, 29% below the sanctioned estimate.
In the southern UK gas basin, offshore and onshore front-end engineering design (FEED) is progressing on Premier’sTolmount field development.
The company has received proposals for the offshore pipeline, drilling rig and platform, and it has submitted a draft field development plan to the Oil & Gas Authority and signed heads of terms with Dana Petroleum and CATS Management Ltd. for the offshore infrastructure.
Premier is aiming for development sanction during the first half of 2018.
In the same region, operatorBP’s Ravenspurn North Deep well (Premier 5%) remains on tight hole status: the well is testing the potential of a deep Carboniferous age horizon underlying the Ravenspurn North field.
Elsewhere, Indonesia’s government has approved Premier’s BIGP development project in Natuna Sea block A, and all major contracts are now awarded. First gas in 2019 will backfill the company’s existing Singapore and domestic market contracts.
Last week Petrovietnam, Premier and SKK Migas (on behalf of the Indonesian government) entered a memorandum of understanding on future gas sales from the Tuna field offshore Indonesia to Vietnam.
This is a step toward a development which would involve installing a new cross-maritime border pipeline to connect the Tuna area to Vietnam’s Nam Con Son pipeline system in Vietnam. Further appraisal in the area is likely in 2019.
At Premier’sChim Sao field off Vietnam, the first of two new infill wells has been drilled and brought on-line. A second infill well will be completed by year end.
11/16/2017
