Sailaway on Ithaca Energy's FPF1 floating production facility to the Greater Stella Area development in the UK North Sea is expected by the end of this month, according to contractor Petrofac.
After a series of setbacks on the FPF1 modification project at the Remontowa Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, Petrofac's contract was incentivised so that it would be paid up to $34 million, on sailaway prior to the end of March this year, reducing to zero after the end of 31 July.
Image: The FPF1 in Gdansk last year. Staff photo.
Petrofac, which has a 20% stake in the Greater Stella Area project, through a deal which saw it sell the FPF1 to Ithaca Energy, says first production remains scheduled for summer 2016.
The FPF1 was previously used by Hess on the North Sea Ivanhoe and Rob Roy fields and also the Renee and Rubie fields. It was then known as the AH001 and was 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.
In a separate announcement, Ithaca Energy has said it has secured access to a major oil export line, Norpipe, which will mean Greater Stella Area production can be exported by pipe, instead of tanker offloading, with the switch to be made some time in 2017. Norpipe runs 350km from the Ekofisk field in the Norwegian North Sea to a terminal in the UK. The move will reduce operating costs and increase operational uptime, says Ithaca.
Ithaca estimates the period from sailaway to first oil will be about three months, i.e. start-up is planned for late-September.
Meanwhile, Petrofac says: "As expected, there has been a lower level of project awards during the first half of the year, however, we see continuing investment from our clients in our core markets of the Middle East and North Africa, in both key upstream and downstream projects. In addition to a number of submitted bids where the outcome is pending, we are currently actively bidding on a large number of projects where award is expected in the second half of the year or early 2017."
Petrofac is reaching around 90% completion on the SARB3 project, offshore Abu Dhabi.
The firm has also secured new awards and extensions totalling more than $0.4 billion in the year to date, including a new five-year $250 million Duty Holder contract in the North Sea for Anasuria Operating Company Limited, a UK joint venture formed between Hibiscus Petroleum Berhad and Ping Petroleum.
The firm was also awarded a Duty Holder contract from BP to support the late life management of the Miller platform, in the UK Central North Sea, in preparation for the next phase of its planned decommissioning programme, and an enhanced $100 million three-year contract extension on the Alwyn and Dunbar platforms in the Northern North Sea for Total E&P UK.
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