Offshore staff
UXBRIDGE, UK – Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has sanctioned the $3.2-billion Golden Eagle area development in the UK central North Sea.
According to operator Nexen Petroleum, the project should deliver around 140 MMboe of proved and probable reserves over an 18-year period.
The development takes in the Golden Eagle and Peregrine reservoirs in blocks 20/1N, 20/1, and 14/26a, 43 mi (69 km) from Aberdeen. Facilities will comprise a combined production, utilities, and accommodation platform linked to a separate wellhead platform, with 16 platform-based wells, four subsea wells, and associated in-field and export pipeline infrastructure.
Detailed design engineering is under way and fabrication should start late this year 2011. Pipeline and subsea installation should begin in early 2013, followed later that year by drilling.
Nexen expects first oil in late 2014, with an initial production rate of up to 70,000 boe/d.
Over two-thirds of the contracts for products and services for Golden Eagle will be sourced in the UK.
Nexen has prospective acreage adjacent to the Golden Eagle development and continues to explore potential synergies with the planned infrastructure, via exploration and appraisal drilling and investment in other development projects in the region.
The company’s partners in Golden Eagle are Maersk Oil North Sea UK, Suncor Energy UK, and Edinburgh Oil and Gas.
10/27/2011
