BP to develop two new North Sea projects

Oil major BP has committed to two new North Sea developments which are expected to produce 30,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak production. BP has awarded a contract for one of the developments to Subsea 7. 

BP said on Tuesday that Alligin and Vorlich are satellite fields located near to existing infrastructure meaning they can be quickly developed through established offshore hubs.

Alligin, a two-well development west of Shetland, will be tied back to BP’s Glen Lyon floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Vorlich, also a two-well development in the central North Sea, will be tied back to the Ithaca Energy-operated FPF-1 floating production facility which lies at the center of Ithaca’s Greater Stella Area production hub.

Both fields are expected to come on stream in 2020, said BP.

Alligin award to Subsea 7

BP on Tuesday also confirmed it has awarded a major contract for the Alligin development to Subsea 7, which will provide project management, engineering, procurement and construction services for the subsea pipelines. Subsea 7 will deliver the contract from its Aberdeen base with offshore activities expected to get under way in 2019 using Subsea 7’s reel-lay vessel, Seven Oceans.

Subsea 7 confirmed the BP contract award and said the value of the contract is between $50 million and $150 million.

Meanwhile, BP has submitted its Environmental Statement for the Vorlich development to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is finalizing its contracting strategy for the development.

Incoming BP North Sea Regional President Ariel Flores said: “BP is working hard to modernize and transform the way we work and a key focus of this is maintaining safety while optimizing the pace at which we deliver activity.

“Through our Alligin and Vorlich developments we are simplifying and accelerating the stages of delivery to improve project cycle time, reduce costs and, importantly, add new production to our North Sea portfolio.

“These projects follow on from a period of record investment by BP in the North Sea which helped deliver our Quad 204 project last year and will deliver our Clair Ridge project which is planned to start-up later in 2018.

“While not on the same scale as Quad 204 and Clair Ridge, Alligin and Vorlich will lead to significant production gains and further demonstrate BP’s commitment to the North Sea.”

BP is the operator of the Alligin field with a 50% interest while Shell holds he other half. Alligin is a 20-million-barrel recoverable oil field in the Greater Schiehallion Area, located approximately 140 kilometers west of Shetland.

BP is also the operator of the Vorlich field with a 66% interest and the remaining 34% interest is held by Ithaca Energy. The field will recover over 30-million-barrels of oil equivalent and is located approximately 241 kilometers east of Aberdeen.