BP's Glen Lyon floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) is nearly finished and due to sail away to the North Sea next month, BP has said in posts on social media.
The firm, which posted a video of the naming ceremony, held at the end of September, has been constructing the vessel at Hyundai Heavy Industries' yard in Ulsan, South Korea.
The vessel is due to be installed on the £3 billion Quad 204 project, covering the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, 175km west of Shetland.
Schiehallion was discovered in 1993, and Loyal a year later, with production starting in 1998 from the Schiehallion FPSO, which the Glen Lyon replaces. Schiehallion and Loyal together had more than a billion barrels in place and recovery to date had been about 15%.
Recognizing the greater potential of the area – BP has produced ~400 MMbo to date and thinks there’s a similar amount to be had – and both the falling efficiency and limitations of the original Schiehallion FPSO, the operator, with partners Shell and OMV, decided to redevelop the field through the Quad 204 project, investing in the new, higher capacity Glen Lyon FPSO, subsea infrastructure renewal, a seven-year drilling program, with at least 20 new wells planned, as well as pre-investment in key polymer EOR facilities. As a result, it hopes it can maximize recovery to above 30%.
Key to the project has been improving liquids handling capability. The Glen Lyon, due onstream in 2016, will have 320,000 b/d liquids capacity. It will be needed. Some 380,000 b/d of water injection capacity will be installed to sweep the field and maintain pressure, with the vessel having a capacity to produce 130,000 bo/d.
Meanwhile, the old Schiehallion FPSO is still in Rotterdam, where it is being upgraded ahead of being redeployed to work offshore Brazil.
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