Offshore staff
LONDON — Shell UK has completed an upgrade project that allows production from the Pierce Field in the UK central North Sea to switch from oil only to gas and oil.
Previously, Pierce’s gas had been re-injected into the reservoir.
The program involved modifications to the FPSO, which Bluewater owns and operates, and installation of a new subsea gas export line connecting to the SEGAL pipeline system that takes gas from multiple fields to the St Fergus terminal, north of Aberdeen.
After the FPSO stopped producing in October 2021, it entered dry dock at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, Norway, for six months for the modifications.
Shell expects the facility to deliver peak production of 30,000 boe/d, more than twice the production prior to the redevelopment, with more gas produced than oil. As before, the oil will be offloaded to a shuttle tanker.
Pierce, discovered in 1975, is in 262 ft (85 m) of water and about 165 miles (265 km) east of Aberdeen; it produced first oil in 1999.
Shell says the project forms part of a wider £20 billion to £25 billion ($24.87 billion to $31.09 billion) investment it has lined up for the UK over the next decade, subject to board approval and a stable investment climate. But any projects must remain economically viable under the recently revised UK tax regime, which led to the introduction of an increased energy profits levy.
Other oil and gas projects underway in the North Sea range from the Penguins redevelopment in the north of the sector to tiebacks from Fram and Arran to Shell’s Shearwater complex in the central sector; and the HP/HT Jackdaw gas development in the same region, another tieback to Shearwater.
Ithaca Energy (UK) is Shell’s co-venturer in Pierce.
04.18.2023
