Premier Oil getting ready for Catcher first oil in December

UK oil and gas company Premier Oil has confirmed the first oil from its Catcher field in the North Sea remains on schedule for December.

In a trading update on Thursday, Premier Oil said the full hook-up of the Catcher FPSO, which arrived in October, “has been essentially finished with with the risers, umbilicals and the installation of the ESDVs now complete.

“The swivel stack is in place and the geostationary pipework connected with the final rotation test due imminently. Testing of the offloading interface with the cargo tanker is underway.

The company said that commissioning activities including the running of main power generation, chemical bunkering, system filling, shutdown system testing and system leak testing, which started in parallel were ongoing, and will be ready for the introduction of hydrocarbons from the Catcher field shortly. According to Premier, first oil is expected “during December”.

Also, Premier Oil said the development drilling program at the project continued ahead of schedule.

The 12 wells originally planned pre-first oil (eight producers and four injectors) have been drilled, completed and tied back to the FPSO and drilling activities on phase 2 of the Catcher development wells are ongoing.

“The first of these phase 2 wells (CCP9) continued the trend of delivering results on, or better than, prognosis in terms of reservoir quality and flow rates. Total project capex, including remaining contingency is forecast at $1.6 billion, 29 per cent lower than the sanctioned estimate,” Premier said.

The Catcher development, made up of several fields discovered between 2010 and 2013, is located 170 kilometers south-east of Aberdeen. The full development entails 22 subsea wells, 14 producers and 8 water injectors, on the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields which will be tied back to the BW Catcher FPSO.

Field ramp up will be over 3-4 month period with Catcher being the first field online followed by Varadero and Burgman. Catcher will be the initial field on production due to its crude oil stability and the lowest gas to oil content of  the three fields.

Offshore Energy Today Staff