OMV agrees to Schiehallion redevelopment

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 13 -- OMV (UK) Ltd. agreed to the €3 billion redevelopment of Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields in 350-500 m of water on UK Quadrants 204 and 205, about 130 km west of Shetland.

OMV estimates that 325 million bbl of resources remain to be recovered and that the redevelopment will extend production from the fields to at least 2035. Schiehallion has produced more than 300 million bbl since production started in 1998, according to OMV.

BP Exploration Operating Co. operates the fields and earlier this year placed an order with Hyundai Heavy Industries to replace the existing Schiehallion floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ, May 2, 2011, p. 68).

The FPSO vessel, to be installed in 2015, has a design for processing up to 130,000 b/d and storing 1 million bbl of oil.

OMV said production from the new facilities should commence in 2016.

The Schiehallion joint venture includes OMV 5.88%, operator BP 33.35%, Shell UK Ltd. 33.35%, Hess Ltd. 15.67%, Murphy Petroleum Ltd. 5.88%, and Statoil (UK) Ltd. 5.88%.

Loyal field owners are operator BP 50% and Shell 50%.

OMV said Schiehallion and Loyal field owners will share the new FPSO on a 82%-18% split.