UK North Sea-focused oil and gas company IOG said Monday that the production start-up from its Blythe and Elgood gas fields in the Southern North Sea would be delayed as the stormy weather had affected the works on the reception facilities at the Bacton Terminal.
IOG is focused on developing its Southern North Sea gas fields at the Saturn Banks Project. The company in June last year installed the Blythe and Southwark gas platforms at their respective offshore field locations in the UK. Located in the southern North Sea, the two usually unmanned, remotely controlled platforms are part of IOG's Saturn Bank project which comprises gas resources across six discovered UK Southern North Sea gas fields. Saturn Bank Phase 1 focuses on the development of Blythe, Elgood, and Southwark fields.
Commenting on the delay on Monday, Andrew Hockey, CEO of IOG, said:"The IOG leadership team attended Bacton terminal late last week to go through a Pre-Start Up Safety Review ahead of final Saturn Banks commissioning. Terminal operator Perenco, executing works on IOG’s behalf, advised us that the current stormy weather has hampered the final construction and leak testing program with a knock-on impact on the commissioning of the safety instrumentation systems. As a result the plant will likely not be ready to start backgassing until the week beginning 28th February, with First Gas from both Blythe and Elgood around a week later. Albeit frustrating, this delay facilitates a safe and reliable start-up.”
Saturn Banks Reception Facilities (SBRF)
IOG said SBRF preparation for First Gas was 99% complete.
"IOG senior management attended a final Pre-Start Up Safety Review and inspected the facilities on Thursday 17 February as part of pre-completion assurance. Final pre-commissioning checks and cause-and-effect function testing and final construction activities continue to be undertaken, albeit severe weather from the named storms passing over the UK has been hindering progress with further stormy weather likely to impact crane lifting operations," IOG said.
Once the terminal operator Perenco UK Limited (PUK), the company and its pipeline duty holder ODE Asset Management (ODEAM) have fully signed off the onshore facilities to safely introduce hydrocarbons, then backgassing operations can start.
This is now targeted for the week beginning 28th February, with first gas expected to occur approximately a week later.
The unsettled weather may also potentially impede the operations required at the Blythe platform as part of the backgassing and start-up procedures, although the bulk of this work is now complete, IOG said. Also, IOG said that as a result of a planned inspection the UK Health and Safety Executive has raised a number of clarifications required to be resolved ahead of start-up and "this is being addressed."
Southwark
In parallel, the IOG said it had continued to progress suitable options for a timely and safe return to Southwark drilling, after unstable conditions due to seabed scouring forced operations to be suspended in January.
"During February to date the forward plan has been defined with the assistance of subject matter experts and agreed with the rig owner. This essentially entails creating pads on the seabed with suitable sized rocks to enable stable positioning of the rig spud cans. This solution is now being expedited with drilling expected to be resumed at Southwark in March subject to completion of the necessary regulatory approvals and commercial processes," the company said.