From the North Sea (NT): A subsea tieback to BP’s Ula or Talisman’s Gyda platform - 12km or 8km distant, respectively - are two of the development options for the BUTCH prospect in the Norwegian sector as suggested in Centrica’s proposal.

Other options are a wellhead platform tied back to the same hosts and a mobile drilling and production unit. According to partner Faroe, concept selection is due to be made in early 2015.

Centrica plans to submit its field development plan in February 2016, get approval the following spring and bring the field onstream in late 2018 with two production wells and one water injector.

Butch is expected to remain in production for 12 years, although at present the company is still working with a wide reserves range – 27-51mboe. The NPD gives an estimate of 47mmbbl of oil and 0.7bcm of gas, equivalent to the top of Centrica’s range. Capex will be NOK4-8bn ($600mn-1.2bn).

Discovered in 2011 by exploration well 8/10-4, Butch lies across two licences. Development is proceeding even though wells this year on Butch East and Butch Southwest were both dry.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE is not a subject that SEN has taken too much interest in, primarily as it has been long delayed and does not have much to do with production. We can not be interested in everything.

But things are heating up, particularly surrounding Shell’s former Goldeneye platform which is due to be the centre for reinjection of CO2 from the Peterhead power station under a UK scheme.

Chevron has now confirmed that it has postponed the startup date for its Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) aka GENDALO-GEHEM (31/14) until 2019 as it has to submit a revised development plan.

Anyone with a long memory will recall that these twin gas fields were originally being developed by Unocal and were due onstream in 2004. So it will now vie with Shell’s Corrib (31/11) gas field in Eire for the longest delayed project. Who’s got the whisky?

A possibly bigger award, though, for 1-SS is a 10-year worldwide frame agreement with BG GROUP. 1-SS-cum-Cameron has supplied BG with more than 100 trees to date - the majority for West Delta Deep (31/14) in Egypt, but there have been some for UK and Norwegian projects as well.

1-SS did not respond to queries on what tree numbers might be involved over the next decade and the projected value of the deal, but all will come to light in the fullness of time, we expect.

From Australia (RW): Expro has been awarded a $50mn contract to supply a testing package and related services for Inpex’s ICHTHYS (31/14) deepwater gas project off Western Australia.

Expro is to supply large-bore subsea landing string, well intervention and fluid analysis and surface sampling services for the project. The initial phase includes 20 high-rate gas producers. Work is expected to begin late this year and run through till 2017-18.

The single-train test package incorporates a 5mcm/d megaflow recycling test separator and 7in large bore landing string assembly. The package also includes wet gas metering and wireline services to complete, clean up and prepare wells for coming into production.

The plan is to allow the wells to flow at maximum rate, thus reducing clean-up time and removing drilling mud, debris and completion fluids from the well bore before the hand-over to production operations.

JDR is to supply what was believed to be its first steel tubed umbilical to Wintershall Noordzee for its RAVN project in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. This is an 18km combined signal and power umbilical linking a new platform with an existing one.

But wait...this is not actually the first STU delivery for JDR. As a famous Jedi master said, ‘there is another’, but it went to one of those shy operators who does not like to be identified and certainly not the first of anything. Now who could that be?

Offshore