BP PLC has put onstream the Seagull oil and gas field on the United Kingdom side of the North Sea, expecting 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent gross in peak production. The project, whose operatorship is under the British energy giant in the production phase, extends the life of the Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) as the first tieback to the production hub in 20 years, BP said in a press release. The ETAP production platform has been operating for 25 years.
Seagulls is a four-well development whose output is delivered via a three-mile undersea pipeline linked to an existing pipeline system. “A new 10-mile umbilical has been installed, linking the ETAP CPF [central processing facility] to the Seagull field, providing control, power and communications services between surface and seafloor”, the announcement stated.
The field sits 10 miles south of the ETAP CPF, which is located east of the Scottish city of Aberdeen, according to BP. “bp has been safely operating in the North Sea for nearly 60 years, delivering a reliable flow of energy, supporting thousands of jobs and a world-class supply chain. We plan to keep doing this by investing in our existing oil and gas infrastructure, like at ETAP, which has been a cornerstone of our North Sea portfolio for a quarter of a century”, BP senior vice-president for the North Sea Doris Reiter said in the news release.
“A key focus for bp in the North Sea is to identify projects which can be developed efficiently using existing infrastructure”, Reiter noted. This approach ensures “we can collectively maximize the recovery of domestic energy resources while extending the life of existing subsea infrastructure to reduce development costs”, commented Alan Muirhead, UK director for Neptune Energy, Seagull’s operator in the development phase.
Meanwhile Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. (JAPEX), the other partner in Seagull, sees the project as a stepping stone for its expansion strategy in the North Sea, JAPEX managing executive officer Tomomi Yamada said in the media release. BP holds a 50 percent stake in Seagull while Neptune has 35 percent and JAPEX owns the remaining 15 percent. Besides Seagull, BP also operates six other fields that produce through ETAP: Machar, Madoes, Mirren, Monan, Marnock and Mungo.
Another future tieback to ETAP, the two-well Marnock-Skua field redevelopment project, is expected to be put onstream 2025 having received government and regulatory approvals September, BP said. BP had expected to decommission ETAP this year but a $1 billion investment in 2015 secured the production hub’s life into the 2030s.
Source: https://www.rigzone.com