Statoil and Shell have put the concept selection process for the U.K. North Sea Bressay (SEN, 31/23) Field on ice because of the current low oil price environment. The pair have been working on a simplified development plan for the heavy oil field since 2014. The move was prompted by data from an extended well test conducted in 2013 on the neighbouring Bentley (32/23) Field, which is a close analogue to Bressay. Statoil and Shell were looking to make improvements in the reservoir drainage plan, while at the same time simplifying the production facilities and reviewing the project execution and contract strategy. Bressay was planned to be a Mariner lookalike with a large production, drilling and quarters platform combined with a floating, storage and offloading (FSO) unit. There were plans to reduce the number of wells and slim down the well related facilities. Over the past year, work has been focused on a phased development for an initial period of up to 10 years, using a leased jackup rig with processing facilities and an FSO. But the rout in oil markets has now forced the pair to put the project on hold.

Det norske oljeselskap has been given the green light to carry out manned diving operations on the Bøyla, Boa, Volund, Øst Kameleon and Viper Kobra fields as well as on the Alvheim (32/21) FPSO unit in 2016. Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority gave the nod to the operations to be carried out over the course of 2016. The operations will be performed by Technip and Subsea 7.

Technip Angola, a joint venture between Technip and Sonangol, has been awarded a three-year engineering services contract by Total. The deal covers services for the existing Girassol (32/13), Pazflor, Dalia and CLOV FPSO units and associated subsea field development. These FPSO units are located in Block 17 offshore Angola. The scope of work can comprise engineering, technical assistance, management, supervision and coordination, as well as procurement-related activities. Technip Angola will carry out the contract, which is scheduled for completion at year-end 2018. President Subsea of Technip Hallvard Hasselknippe said, “This contract reinforces our activity in Africa, an area with good dynamics. It also fits into our strategy to engage with our clients at early stages of their projects and build on long-lasting successful relationships.”

The Deepsea Atlantic drilling rig has spun the bit in the first of 35 wells to be drilled in the first phase of the Johan Sverdrup (SEN, 32/22) field development. The rig is drilling the first production well through a predrilling template that was installed on the field in summer 2015. Eight wells will be drilled through the predrilling template before the rig is relocated to drill injection wells at three locations on the field. In 2018 the permanent Johan Sverdrup drilling platform will be installed as the second of four platforms. The drilling platform is currently being constructed at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, north of Stavanger, and in Thailand. When the drilling platform is installed and operational, the eight predrilled wells will be hooked up from the predrilling template. At this point Deepsea Atlantic will be drilling the injection wells providing reservoir pressure support to maintain high field production.

Chevron has started producing LNG and condensate from the Gorgon (32/21) project on Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The Gorgon Project is supplied from the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields, located within the Greater Gorgon area, between 130 km and 220 km off the northwest coast of Western Australia. It includes a 15.6-million tonnes per annum LNG plant on Barrow Island, a carbon dioxide injection project and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to supply 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western Australia. Chevron is positioned to become a major LNG supplier by 2020. In particular, Chevron’s Australian projects are well located to meet growing demand for energy in the Asia-Pacific region and more than 80% of Chevron’s Australian subsidiaries’ equity LNG from the Gorgon and Wheatstone projects is covered by sales and purchase agreements and heads of agreements with customers in the region. The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.3%), Exxon Mobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and Chubu Electric Power (0.417%).

Subsea 7 has secured a sizeable extension to the existing contract by BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. for the provision of subsea construction, inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) services in the North Sea. Under the terms of the agreement, Subsea 7 will provide BP with an additional two years of IRM delivery, extending the contract to 2019. The contract, valued between $50 million and $150 million, covers the maintenance of the Schiehallion (32/19), Loyal, Foinaven and East Foinaven fields west of Shetland. Project management and engineering work will be managed from Subsea 7’s Aberdeen office.

McDermott International said it has been awarded a large contract by an upstream oil and gas operator for an offshore project in the Middle East. The scope includes engineering, procurement, fabrication, transportation and installation of offshore pipelines. Engineering and offshore mobilisation of McDermott’s in-house vessels already has begun for the fast-track assignment, with project completion expected by year-end 2016. “The Middle East market remains very active and continues to be a focus for McDermott, and we are pleased with our customers’ continued trust in our capabilities in executing offshore EPCI [engineering, procurement, construction and installation] work in the region,” said Linh Austin, vice president, Middle East Area.

Well management company Exceed has won a contract to support Fairfield Energy in its forthcoming North Sea well plugging-and-abandonment campaign. Fairfield’s programme includes 45 platform wells and 16 subsea wells, all of which will be plugged and permanently abandoned. The platform wells decommissioning will commence in the next few months with the operational phase of the subsea wells work due to start in 2017. John Anderson, Exceed commercial director, said, “This award demonstrates the capacity of Exceed as a multidisciplined well management organisation capable of providing support to complex well decommissioning activities. This will be a major focus going forward, both in the UKCS [U.K. Continental Shelf and internationally, and Exceed is delighted to be supporting Fairfield in one of the largest single UKCS well abandonment campaigns of this nature to date.”

Offshore