Subsea 7 installs pipeline bundle at Buzzard

Subsea 7 has completed the installation of a five-kilometre pipeline bundle for the CNOOC Buzzard International Phase II (BPII) project.

Subsea 7 reported that the company’s 88th pipeline bundle in 40 years is ready to link the new northern area wells back to the existing platform in the Buzzard field.

The complete 5,500-tonne system, produced in Subsea 7’s fabrication site near Wick, Scotland, was towed 150 kilometres to the Buzzard field using a specialised mid-depth tow method.

Back in 2018, the company secured the contract for the project management, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the bundle, along with associated well and platform tie-ins.

“Bundle technology is an ideal fit for this project. It provides all subsea production, water injection and gas lift flowlines, as well as control functions and end manifolds in a single integrated system, which is fully fabricated and tested onshore”, Subsea 7 said.

“The BPII bundle system also incorporates a large drill centre manifold (36m long and 300 tonnes), allowing for up to 12 wells to be tied-in”.

Last month, the installation of the new topside module was completed, with Subsea 7 working with Allseas and fellow Alliance members CNOOC International and Worley.

Willie Geddes, Alliance delivery manager and project director for Subsea 7, said: “It’s fantastic that we can celebrate the arrival of the subsea pipeline system into the field, taking us another major step towards the completion of this project. Thanks to a tremendous collective effort by the Alliance companies, everything is in place to proceed with the final hook-up and commissioning of the subsea and topside systems”.

The CNOOC International-operated Buzzard field is located in the North Sea’s Outer Moray Firth, east of Scotland. The BPII project is an expansion of the existing Buzzard field development for CNOOC International.

Phase two of the field development was sanctioned back in August 2018. It includes a subsea production and water injection manifold located at a new drill centre, tied back to the existing Buzzard facility. The first production from BPII is planned for 4Q 2021.