Page 13 - Euroil Week 41 2019
P. 13
EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Dana, Parkmead file plans for Platypus gas project
UK
The project investors are targeting 3 bcm of recoverable gas.
ENERGY firm Parkmead Group has announced that a draft plan has been filed with authorities for development of the Platypus gas field in the southern North Sea.
The UK independent said the plan had been submitted to the Oil and Gas Authority and the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning by the project’s operator, Dana Petroleum.
The plan calls for two wells more than 3,100 metres deep to be drilled at Platypus. These will be tied back to the nearby Perenco-operated Cleeton platform, via a 23-km pipeline, “signif- icantly” lowering the initial capital expenditure and field operating cost, according to Parkmead.
From Cleeton, gas will be pumped to the Dimlington terminal in Humberside, northern England, for processing and separation. Con- trols will be provided from the Cleeton platform by using a subsea control umbilical running along the pipeline to Platypus.
“We have achieved an important milestone on the valuable Platypus project. This innovative
subsea tie-back plan reduces the cost of the pro- ject significantly,” Parkmead chairman Tom Cross explained. “The Platypus project has the potential to open up further development upside in this prolific gas area, in which Parkmead has additional appraisal and exploration interests.”
Dana, a unit of Korean National Oil Corp. (KNOC), has 59% ownership of the Platypus project, while Parkmead hold 15%. They are joined by Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary CalEn- ergy with 15% and the UK’s Zennor Petroleum with 11%.
Tenders for subsea engineering, procure- ment and construction (EPC) at Platypus, along with the supply of umbilicals and controls, are scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter. A project final investment decision (FID) should be reached by the middle of next year, with first gas scheduled for early 2022.
The project investors are targeting 105bn cubic feet (3bn cubic metres) of recoverable gas at Platypus, and aim to produce at a rate
Greenpeace activists scale Shell’s Brent platforms
UK
The group
are protesting
against Shell’s decommissioning plans.
GREENPEACE activists scaled two platforms at Royal Dutch Shell’s Brent field in the UK North Sea on October 14, protesting against the major’s plan for decommissioning the facilities.
Greenpeace said a team of five climbers had boarded the Brent Alpha and Bravo platforms, located 186km east of the Shetlands, supported by an inflatable craft and Greenpeace’s Rain- bow Warrior vessel. They hung banners saying ‘Shell, clean up your mess!’ and ‘Stop Ocean Pollution.’
According to Greenpeace, Shell has asked for an exemption from the UK government from a ban on leaving installations and platforms in the North East Atlantic Ocean. The Anglo-Dutch major intends to abandon four Brent oil plat- forms at sea holding 640,000 cubic metres of oily waters and 40,000 cubic metres of oily sediment, containing more than 11,000 tonnes of crude, the NGO said.
“Shell’s plans are a scandal and go against international agreements to protect the envi- ronment,” Greenpeace campaigner Dr Chris- tian Bussau said in a statement. “With escalating climate emergency, biodiversity loss and species
extinction, we need healthy oceans more than ever. Abandoning thousands of tonnes of oil in ageing concrete will sooner or later pollute the sea. Shell must be stopped.”
The Dutch and German governments – both parties to the 1998 OSPAR treaty that bans the dumping of oil installations alongside the UK – have also raised concerns about Shell’s exemption. The protest comes ahead of a key consultative meeting of the OSPAR commission scheduled to take place in London on October 18.
“We urge OSPAR governments to protect the ocean and not cave in to corporate pressure,” Greenpeace said.
The Shell-operated Brent field has yielded more than 3bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) since starting production in 1976 – equal to almost 10% of total UK output since that time. Shell filed plans to decommission the filed in February 2017, recommending that the upper steel jacket of the Brent Alpha platform be removed, along with the topsides of all four plat- forms. But the platform’s gravity-based struc- tures are to remain in place.
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