Turret buoy for Aoka Mizu FPSO departs to Lancaster field

The turret buoy mooring system for Hurricane Energy’s Lancaster development off Shetland has left the Lerwick Harbour in the UK.

Lerwick Port Authority said on Monday that the buoy mooring system was delivered to Lerwick from Dubai on board the Jumbo Kinetic which berthed at Mair’s Pier East in mid-June to lift the system from the deck into the water.

The Authority’s vessels, Kebister and Knab, then towed the floating buoy to a holding location at Mair’s Pier South.

The buoy is over 20 meters in both diameter and height and weighs approximately 1,200 tonnes.

In early July, the vessels moved the buoy to the Shetland port’s Brei Wick area where anchor handling vessels picked up the tow, prior to taking it to the Lancaster field.

Anchored to the seabed, it will form part of the Early Production System’s turret mooring system around which the floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Aoka Mizu will weather-vane.

The FPSO is currently being upgraded in Dubai, with oil production due to begin from Lancaster in the first-half of 2019.

Lerwick Port Authority deputy chief executive and harbourmaster, Captain Calum Grains, said: “With the harbour having more than 50 years’ experience of the offshore industry, it is great to still be getting involved with a new generation operator and a pioneering project, and to have our plans for handling the buoy well-received by Hurricane.

“The buoy is another example of the versatility of the deep-water port in servicing subsea developments in the North Sea and Atlantic.”

The Lancaster license, located West of Shetland in about 150 meters of water, has combined 2P Reserves and 2C Resources of 523 million barrels. Hurricane made the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the development of the Lancaster EPS in mid-September last year.

It is worth reminding that Hurricane Energy finished well completion operations for the EPS system on the Lancaster field earlier this month.