Ithaca Energy's floating production unit, the FPF-1, has set sail from the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk after completing a required inclination test.
The vessel has been moved to a deepwater location offshore Gdansk to undertake final marine system trials over the course of next week. It will then be towed to the Stella field, in the UK North Sea, with first oil expected about three months later.
Completion of modifications on the vessel, which was previously known as the AH001 and was used by Hess on the North Sea Ivanhoe and Rob Roy fields in the North Sea, has seen a series of set backs. Petrofac, the contractor, had its contract incentivized so that Petrofac would be paid up to US$34 million on sailaway prior to the end of March this year, reducing to zero after the end of 31 July.
The unit is due to produce the Greater Stella Area, containing the Stella and Harrier fields, initially via five subsea wells on Stella, with plans to also tie-in the Hurricane discovery and potentially other prospects in the area.
The AH001 was previously owned by Hess and operated by Aker Production Solutions. The AH001 had been converted from the Sedco/Phillips SS, the first offshore safety vessel. It was originally built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shipyard at Hiroshima in Japan and delivered in 1977 at a cost of $40 million.
Screenshot from Marinetraffic.com