Spirit starts offshore decommissioning process at Morecambe Bay fields

Offshore staff

WINDSOR, UK – Spirit Energy plans to remove subsea equipment from Morecambe Bay off northwest England, as part of a program to decommission the Bains field.

Bains, 17 mi (27 km) west of Blackpool, came onstream in 2002 and produced 46 bcf of gas via a subsea connection to the company’s main South Morecambe platform.

Decommissioning will take place next year, subject to approval by Britain’s Oil & Gas Authority.

Under the proposals, the well drilled at Bains will be decommissioned and the wellhead protection structure removed, with more than 95% of the material recovered expected to be recycled.

The field was named after John Bains, the petrophysicist who first discovered gas in Morecambe Bay in 1972.

At the same time, Spirit Energy is also planning how to decommission two of the unmanned platforms in Morecambe Bay, DP3 and DP4, as the gas reserves the installations previously tapped into are now produced by the larger, manned South Morecambe platform nearby.

03/16/2018