From Houston (BN): Freeport McMoRan said it found more than 40 m of net pay at its Horn Mountain Deep project in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM).

First production is expected in 2017 and, combined with two follow on development wells, may produce up to 30,000 boe/d, the company said. The production will be tied back to existing facilities.

The well was drilled to a total depth of about 5,158 m in the Middle Miocene, where it found “excellent reservoir qualities.”

The site is in Mississippi Canyon Block 127 in more than 1,660 m about 230 km southeast of New Orleans, and the well targeted 34.5-degree oil.

The announcement comes amid news reports that Freeport McMoRan, which has been in and out of the oil business more times than you can count recently, may spin off its oil operations to focus on copper.

Still, the company’s operational update bragged about its other ongoing oil operations and prospects in the GoM. Listed were development wells at King, completion activities at Holstein Deep and the prospects Sugar, Rose, Fiesta, Platinum and Peach near the wholly owned Horn Mountain production facility.

Premier Oil continues to expect first oil to flow from its U.K. North Sea Solan (SEN, 32/13) project in fourth-quarter 2015.

Good offshore productivity on the project and 97% uptime has been achieved with the Regalia flotel, while completion of the commissioning of the subsea infrastructure also is progressing well.

A number of the critical path platform systems have now been successfully commissioned including the firewater deluge system and other safety-related systems such as the gas detection system. Some 34,000 hours of planned commissioning activity remains to first oil, which Premier said are being achieved at a rate of 600 hr to 800 hr per day.

Solan, which is being developed with a subsea storage tank, contains 44 MMbbl of reserves, and once online it is expected to ramp up to a peak production rate of 25,000 bbl/d.

Technip has landed a contract from Shell for the development of subsea infrastructure for the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Stones (32/11) project.

Included in the workscope are two subsea production tie-backs to the FPSO vessel.

The Stones Field is located in the Walker Ridge area in the U.S. GoM, at a water depth of 2,930 m (9,613 ft) along the pipelay route.

The contract covers engineering of the required second pipeline end terminations (PLETs), fabrication of the PLETs and piles, installation of the subsea production system, and includes associated project management, engineering and stalk fabrication.

From Houston (BN): DeepStar, a consortium of 12 oil companies that has run a series of joint-industry projects related to offshore challenges, has hired GMC Deepwater to test high-strength mechanically connected, friction-welded steel riser for strength and fatigue resistance in steel catenary riser applications.

GMC said full-scale testing is planned for risers and pipelines, including mechanical and fatigue testing of friction joints and connectors rated for 15,000-psi pressure.

Glen Viau, COO, cited the “urgent requirement” for cost-effective technical solutions in deepwater and ultradeepwater projects as HP/HT and hostile environments such as the Arctic become increasingly important.

VBMS, a joint venture of VolkerWessels and Boskalis, has successfully completed the offshore installation of an 18.5-km control umbilical for Wintershall.

The umbilical connects the Ravn (32/6) platform in the Danish sector to A6A in the German sector of the North Sea.

VBMS equipped the SURF-installation vessel Ndurance with the in-house developed Trenchformer burial system to perform the full installation, which included direct pull-ins and the simultaneous laying and burial of the umbilical.

Statoil is reaching out across Norway’s maritime boundary with the U.K. and has strengthened its position in a block containing the Alfa Sentral Field.

Statoil has acquired First Oil’s 24% stake in PL046 which contains Alfa Sentral, boosting its operated stake to 62%.

Alfa Sentral is a 60-MMboe gas and condensate field, which is planned to be developed as a tieback to the existing infrastructure for Sleipner (32/7) on the Norwegian continental shelf, which Statoil operates. Alfa Sentral will therefore increase the utilisation of the Sleipner facilities.

Mette Halvorsen Ottøy, senior vice president for the operations south cluster in Development and Production Norway (DPN), said, “Statoil has set ambitious goals for future activity, production and value creation. This transaction demonstrates the potential on both the U.K. and Norwegian side of the continental shelf. The acquisition of this Alfa Sentral licence increases the resource base and strengthens our efforts to further develop the Sleipner area towards 2030.”

The transaction is expected to close by year-end 2015. Concept selection for the Alfa Sentral project was passed in September 2015. Negotiations to unitise the field will commence shortly.

A final investment decision is planned for late 2016 with production startup in 2020.

Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract by BP for the provision of additional living quarters, as part of BP’s Life Extension Project on the Eastern Trough Area Project (32/10) (ETAP) in the U.K. Central North Sea.

The BP ETAP Life Extension Project will extend the life of the platform to 2030 and improve its operating efficiency.

Claxton has successfully installed a high-pressure drilling riser system as part of a multimillion-pound contract for Premier Oil’s Catcher (32/13) area field development in the U.K. Central North Sea.

Claxton’s scope of work includes providing the subsea connector to latch the riser with the subsea wellhead; riser tensioning interface from the riser to the rig’s tension system; and all riser handling tools and a suite of custom-designed bolt tensioners, which will facilitate flange makeup.

The Catcher area field development includes the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields in Block 28/09a.

2H Offshore has been picked by Chevron to manage a production riser weld qualification testing programme.

The aim of the development of 20,000-psi technology is to qualify the equipment required to develop future offshore fields with design pressures above 15,000 psi and temperatures above 250 F.

These design pressure and temperature requirements result in line pipe wall thickness requirements as much as 1.9 in. for 8-in. to 10-in. diameter risers. This is beyond what the industry already has qualified and installed to date for fatigue sensitive deepwater risers.

The scope of the programme will incorporate test pipe specifications, procurement and qualification of new welding and comprehensive fatigue testing that will include the effects of sour service conditions.

In addition, the project scope includes the development of feasible marine riser system configurations for a number of different host vessels.

XPD8 Solutions has won a two-year condition monitoring contract with CNR International for five CNR platforms in the North Sea, including Tiffany.

Having already provided cover to CNR International’s U.K. Continental Shelf assets over the past eight years, this latest contract will take XPD8 to a decade working for the Canadian independent.

Gordon Ellis, operations director at XPD8, said, “The downturn facing the oil and gas industry has made it more important than ever for operators to know their equipment is working at optimum levels. Effective condition monitoring is crucial in ensuring that production continues at the desired rate. In addition, the correct system will flag up where machinery is not running efficiently, helping to avoid breakdowns and the costs this ensues in downtime and repairs.”

Shell has begun production from the Malampaya depletion compression platform (32/6), a new offshore natural gas platform in the West Philippine Sea.

The platform, which is adjacent to the existing Malampaya shallow-water platform, will help ensure a steady supply of natural gas to the Philippines.

The completed facility supports the extension of the only indigenous producing natural gas source in the Philippines, which provides 40% to 50% of the power generation needs for the island of Luzon, the largest and most populous island of the Philippines.