Uchenna Izundu
OGJ International Editor
LONDON, Aug. 11 -- Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd. is set to receive the jacket and piles for the fourth platform on its Buzzard oil field in the UK North Sea ahead of schedule. Early installation of the substructure components will reduce the installation and hook-up work when the topsides and bridge are installed in 2010.
Heerema Vlissingen, one of the fabrication facilities of Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), has loaded the jacket and piles onto a barge to sail to the field, which is 30 miles northeast of Peterhead in Scotland.
The company won the engineering, procurement, and construction contract in March 2008 to deliver a 3,500-ton jacket and eight piles that weigh 2,200 tons. The jacket measures 42 x 42 x 124 m and has eight piles 96-in. piles that weigh a total of 2,200 tons.
Heerema Vlissingen delivered the equipment early because it had lined up timely procurement and there were no changes to the design.
The new installation should be equipped to handle 200,000 b/d of crude with up to 500 ppm of hydrogen sulfide. It will also have facilities for up to three tiebacks.
“In the meantime, HFG’s fabrication facility Heerema Hartlepool is fabricating the 6,000-ton process deck and 500-ton bridge, due for load-out in March 2010,” said HFG.
Buzzard holds more than 1 billion bbl of oil in place. It is one of the UK’s largest new North Sea developments of recent years (OGJ Online, May 1, 2008). Nexen expects that the field will require 27 production wells. Reservoir pressure will be maintained by an active waterflood program using produced water supplemented by treated sea water when necessary.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
Illustration from Aker BP.
