Norwegian giant Statoil has started drilling at its Mariner field in the UK North Sea using the world’s largest jackup, with a target for first oil set for 2018.
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Image of the Mariner topsides at DSME, from Statoil. |
Plans for Mariner include drilling up to five wells before the hook up and commissioning of the Mariner A platform in mid-2017. The Noble Lloyd Noble jackup is currently positioned over the Mariner jacket. The first production wells will be drilled through a well deck on the jacket. In total, up to 100 reservoir targets could be drilled over the 30-year lifetime of the Mariner field, based on the current development strategy, Statoil said.
The Mariner field is on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea, about 150km east of the Shetland Isles. The heavy oil field has reserves estimated at more than 250 MMbbl with an average plateau production of around 55,000 b/d.
The concept chosen by Statoil includes a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, with the Mariner B floating storage unit (FSU), which has been fully installed in the field with some 20 people on board.
In addition, the pipelines have been installed in the Mariner field, and other subsea, umbilical, risers and flowline (SURF) operations have been completed. Production is anticipated in 2018.
“This is an exciting period for us as a UKCS operator as we transition from the planning phase to active offshore operations,” Hedda Felin, managing director, Statoil Production UK said. “Predrilling enables production to reach plateau levels more quickly after the start of operations on Mariner A. It will also be an important learning period for us in terms of understanding the reservoir and identifying potential efficiencies for future wells, with safety and the protection of the environment being our fundamental priorities.”
The Mariner topside modules are currently under construction at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea and sailaway is expected in 1H 2017.
Mariner is one of the largest projects currently under development in the UKCS. Contracts worth more than US$1.2 billion (£1 billion) have been awarded to date to the UK supply chain by the project.
Statoil is the operator of Mariner with 65.11% stake. Partners include JX Nippon E&P UK (20 %), Siccar Point Energy (8.89%) and Dyas Mariner (6%).
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