First production from the Greater Stella Area development in the UK North Sea has hit a further set back as delays continue on the project's floating production facility.
Operator Ithaca Energy said the rate of progress of modifications to the FPF-1 floating production facility by Petrofac in the Remontowa yard in Poland were insufficient to achieve planned sail-away in Q2 2015.
Ithaca said: "Taking full account of actual performance to date and a conservative view on the completion of commissioning activities, sail-away of the FPF-1 is now planned for late in the first quarter of 2016, resulting in first hydrocarbons in the Q2 of the year."
Ithaca says the FPF-1, which was previously used by Hess on the North Sea Ivanhoe and Rob Roy fields, is in an advanced state of mechanical completion. "Petrofac has good visibility of all the remaining workscopes necessary to complete and commission the vessel," the firm said.
Mechanical completion is now scheduled for Q3 2015. "The vessel commissioning program is planned to commence in parallel with completion of construction activities in the middle of the year and is forecast to take approximately six months," says Ithaca. "The FPF-1 and risers have been designed to enable year-round installation, hence sail-away can occur at the earliest available opportunity."
Despite the delays, Ithaca says the quality of the work being undertaken in the yard remains high. "This will not be compromised to accelerate a sail-away schedule that could ultimately result in a costly and inefficient offshore commissioning and start-up phase," the firm says.
Meanwhile, the Stella drilling campaign is substantially complete, with the results of the clean-up flow test on the fifth and final well (Stella Ekofisk) anticipated in March 2015. The majority of the subsea infrastructure has been installed and the remaining elements are scheduled for installation in Q2 2015.
Les Thomas, Ithaca CEO, says: “It is disappointing to incur a further delay in completion of the FPF-1 modifications program. While the drilling and subsea installation aspects of the Greater Stella Area development have progressed well, completion of the FPF-1 program has proved difficult. Petrofac has clear visibility on what needs to be done and we remain focused on ensuring that all the required work is completed in the yard in order to ensure an efficient offshore start-up.”
Stella is in Blocks 29/10a and 30/6a under license P.011. Ithaca's partners are Dyas (25.34% interest) and Petrofac (20%), with Ithaca holding the remaining 54.66%.
Subscribe
