Page 10 - EurOil Week 33 2021

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Maersk Drilling wins UK North Sea contract from Harbour
UK
MAERSK Drilling announced this week that it had been awarded a contract by the UK’s Har- bour Energy for the Mærsk Innovator jack-up rig. Under the contract, the rig will drill three subsea development wells in the Catcher area, on Block 28/9 on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
The Mærsk Innovator is an ultra-harsh envi- ronment CJ70-X150-MD jack-up rig, which was designed for year-round operations in the North Sea. It has been active since 2003 and is currently warm-stacked in Grenaa, Denmark after its pre- vious contract in the UK ended in May 2020.
“We’re excited to secure this contract with Harbour Energy which will see Mærsk Innova- tor go back to work in the UK, stated Maersk’s chief operating officer, Morten Kelstrup. “We believe the Innovator’s high-specification and technical capabilities are an ideal match for this work scope, including the rig’s large deck area, offline capabilities, and capacity for deploying subsea trees,” he added.
The contract term is expected to kick off in December, and will last for about nine months. The announcement comes after Harbour said in June that an infill drilling programme was being progressed at Catcher. Another such programme is also being progressed in the Beryl area.
Catcher is located roughly 174 km from Aberdeen in water depths of around 90 metres. Oil was first discovered at Catcher in 2010. The area produces from 18 subsea wells on Catcher, Varadero and Burgman from a combination of production and water injection wells, which are tied back to a newly built and leased floating, production, storage, offloading (FPSO) vessel. BW Offshore owns and operates the Catcher FPSO.
Harbour was formed earlier this year through a reverse takeover between Chrysaor and Premier Oil. According to its website, it is now the UK’s largest listed independent oil and gas company.™
ENERGY TRANSITION
Danish CCS project moves forward with pilot phase
DENMARK
The project entails capturing CO2 from the Nini West field in the Siri area of the Danish North Sea.
THE Project Greensand carbon capture and storage (CCS) consortium is proceeding with the scheme’s pilot phase, some of the partners, including Ineos Oil & Gas Denmark and Win- tershall Dea, said this week.
The project entails capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Nini West field in the Siri area of the Danish North Sea, which is operated by the UK’s Ineos. The project has three phases – appraisal, pilot and full project execution. The appraisal phase has been completed, with classi- fication society DNV certifying that Nini West is conceptually suitable for CO2 injection, and that the subsea reservoir can safely contain the CO2. Ineos described the issuing of the certification as a major hurdle being cleared for the project.
Project Greensand is seeking to inject up to 8mn tonnes per year (tpy) of CO2 – around a quarter of Denmark’s CO2 emissions – into the subsea reservoir. Under the pilot phase, the first volumes would be injected by late 2022. Emis- sions will be captured from the operations of Danish cement producer Aalborg Portland, and transported to the Nini West reservoir by ship. If the pilot is successful, it is expected to lead to
full-scale CO2 storage in Nini West by 2025, subject to obtaining the necessary funding and regulatory approvals.
If this plays out, the Siri area would hold 0.5-1.0mn tpy of CO2 by 2025, and potentially 4-8mn tpy of CO2 by 2030.
The consortium consists of 29 members that include oil and gas companies, as well as research institutions and universities. Maersk Drilling and the Geological Survey of Den- mark and Greenland (GEUS) are also leading members, alongside Wintershall and Ineos. The project is also supported by the Danish govern- ment, which is targeting a 70% reduction in the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.
The partners in Project Greensand have said that the scheme has the potential to account for all of the CO2 storage envisioned under the Dan- ish Climate Programme.
Also this week, Magseis Renewables, a sub- sidiary of offshore seismic contractor Magseis Fairfield, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to join Phase 2 of Greensand.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 19•August•2021