Petrofac scores renewal deal for Neptune’s North Sea assets

Oilfield services provider Petrofac has secured a two-year contract extension with Neptune Energy for the provision of engineering services to Neptune-operated platforms in the UK Southern North Sea.

Neptune Energy announced the contract renewal on Tuesday. The contract stipulates that Petrofac is expected to provide engineering services for the Neptune-operated Cygnus Alpha and Bravo platforms. This contract extension will take effect from 1 January 2022.

It is worth noting that Cygnus Alpha consists of three bridge-linked platforms – a wellhead drilling centre, a processing unit and living quarters/central control room – while Cygnus Bravo, an unmanned satellite platform, is approximately seven kilometres northwest of Cygnus Alpha.

Alexandra Thomas, Neptune Energy’s UK Managing Director, remarked: “Petrofac is an important partner for Neptune Energy in the UK with a strong and well-established understanding of the Cygnus assets. The offshore team’s detailed knowledge supports the safe and optimal operation of the facility, and reduces time and costs associated with planning engineering activities.”

Petrofac will provide a range of brownfield engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services for the Cygnus field. The new contract follows the award of a separate, three-year contract extension to the company earlier this year, for operations and maintenance support in the UK.

Petrofac started working on the pre-operational phase of Cygnus in 2011 and the company celebrated its tenth anniversary of supporting the Cygnus field earlier this year.

Nick Shorten, Petrofac’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: “Our operations experience on Cygnus gives our engineering team unique insight into how to manage key brownfield integrity scopes and EPC modifications with ultra-efficient results; reducing impact on operations and minimising downtime in order that Neptune can continue to meet critical energy demand.”

The Cygnus field is a crucial component of the UK North Sea energy infrastructure, capable of producing approximately 6 per cent of UK domestic gas demand and typically exporting over 250 million standard cubic feet of gas daily.

Earlier this year, Neptune and Spirit Energy agreed to partner on the development of the Pegasus West gas discovery and the Cygnus platform is expected to become the host platform for the Pegasus development.

Neptune also started the first Walk to Work (W2W) campaign at this gas field in September, which is expected to increase productive time at Cygnus Bravo, allowing for additional operations to be undertaken that would have otherwise been scheduled separately.