Page 17 - Euroil Week 28 2020
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EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Eni to decommission Hewett gas field
UK
The decision to cease production was taken early last year.
ITALY’S Eni has led plans with UK authorities to decommission six platforms at and near the Hewett gas eld in the North Sea.
The platforms, around 22 km north-east of the Norfolk coast, produce from the main Hewett eld and its six satellites, Big Dotty, Lit- tle Dotty, Deborah, Dawn, Bella and Delilah. Eni intends to remove them completely using heavy li vessels for recycling and disposal. e work will start in late 2021 at the earliest and end before 2029.
Eni will submit a separate decommissioning plan for the elds’ 32 subsea wells and associated infrastructure.
Hewett’s development began in 1968, a er the installation of the rst platform, 48/29A-FTP. e platform is bridge-linked to two others and receives gas from other producing platforms and subsea well sets. is gas is then transported via pipelines to the Bacton terminal onshore.
The other three platforms are usually
unmanned.
Production is due to cease before the end of
this year. Eni took this decision last year, well before the market downturn. e Italian rm has a 90% interest in the project, while Anglo-French Perenco has 10%.
There have been a number of decommis- sioning announcements by North Sea operators in recent months. Unlike Hewett, some pro- jects will be taken o ine sooner than expected because of the oil price collapse. UK independ- ent Premier Oil, for instance, decided last month to cease production at Balmoral and its satellites.
While current market conditions have caused a surge in projects being prematurely decommis- sioned, at the same time operators have had to make deep cuts to decommissioning spending in response to low prices. is will cause decom- missioning suppliers and contractors to su er, even though they will be in greater demand in the coming years.
Tulip Oil cuts output in Dutch North Sea amid weak prices
NETHERLANDS
The company decided to “leave gas in the ground” until prices recover.
DUTCH firm Tulip Oil has scaled back gas production at the Q10-A gas eld in the Neth- erlands-owned North Sea in response to low gas prices, it said on July 13.
e Q10-A eld started owing gas in Feb- ruary last year, delivering it to the P15d platform for export via a 42-km pipeline. Output came to 198mn cubic metres in the rst quarter.
In a statement, however, Tulip said it had reduced production at the site to “leave gas in the ground,” given current market conditions. As such, only 119 mcm of gas was produced in the second quarter.
European gas prices have fallen to record lows this year, as a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated a global supply glut, created by ris- ing LNG production over the past year.
e August contract for gas at the Netherlands is currently selling at around €5.5-6.0 ($6.3-6.8) per MWh, less than half as much as the start of the year. Tulip sold its gas on average for €5.6 per MWh during the second quarter, down from €9.9 in the previous three-month period.
Tulip is currently maintaining output at around 1 mcm per day, although reservoir
models have been calibrated and preparations continue to add two more wells at Q10-A. Work is also underway to increase production capac- ity signi cantly by activating existing third-party compression facilities.
Tulip said it was continuing to mature further drilling targets, to appraise reservoirs near Q10- A. ese targets have been drilled before and owed gas to the surface, as was the case with Q10-A prior to the 2015 discovery well.
Week 28 16•July•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P17
