Offshore staff
LONDON – IOG plc says work to prepare the Bacton onshore terminal to receive gas from the Saturn Banks project in the UK North Sea is now 93% complete.
CEO Andrew Hockey said the new aim was to have the facility ready for back-gassing in mid-February, followed by first gas from the Blythe and Elgood fields around a week later.
The main work remaining is final electrical and instrumentation, construction and pre-commissioning, and system leak testing.
IOG continues to work with its drilling contractors and consultants on options for resuming safe development drilling at the Southwark field in the next four to six weeks. The timeline should become clearer following analysis of new seabed survey data.
Earlier this month the jackup Noble Hans Deul had to suspend drilling as seabed conditions were causing movement relative to the platform. The rig has been relocated to the Elgood 500-m (1,640-ft) zone: initial inspections suggest the rig remains fully serviceable.
Unplanned interruptions to the drilling campaign, further requirements for offshore pre-operating activities and the need to expand the scope of subsea and pipeline installations have increased anticipated Phase 1 capex by up to 20-25% compared with the figure in the field development plan (including completion of the Southwark wells).
But IOG does not expect to seek additional financing to bring all three Phase 1 fields onstream.
01/25/2022
