Shell UK and Dana Petroleum have authorized EnQuest, operator of the Greater Kittiwake Area (GKA) fields in the central UK North Sea, to additionally assume management of the decommissioning scope.
When Shell originally divested the fields, which it developed, it retained operator responsibility for decommissioning the Kittiwake platform and the Mallard field subsea tieback.
The GKA infrastructure is set to remain in production into the late 2020s, but EnQuest is planning now for a managed decommissioning program after operations have ceased.
Elsewhere in the UK North Sea, the company has demonstrated its capabilities with the removal of the EnQuest Producer and Northern Producer floating production systems and the current well P&A campaigns at the Thistle and Heather fields in the northern North Sea.
Work to date has come in 40% below benchmark costs, the company claims, and it expects to complete the P&A of 77 wells—representing 60% of its operated suspended and shut-in wells—within five years of cessation of production.
