Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK –Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) is converting its Eider Alpha platform in the UK northern North Sea into a utility platform.
The facility, 184 km (114 mi) northeast of the Shetland Islands, is no longer viable for a production role, the company claims, and can instead be adapted to help extend the lives of TAQA’s other maturing fields in the region.
Late last year the company completed a bypass project under which production from the Otter field - previously sent to Eider Alpha – is now directed to the TAQA-operated North Cormorant platform.
Donald Taylor, TAQA Europe’s managing director, said: “In utility mode Eider will continue to provide power, chemical and system support to enable production from the Otter field. In addition, a plug and abandonment program on the Eider wells is currently under way, with a planned removal of all significant hydrocarbons from the platform during the second half of 2018.”
Taylor continued: “We have maintained regular communications with all crew members and have committed to redeploy all TAQA staff not required for utility mode on Eider, across our operations, maintaining experience and expertise within our business. We are also working closely with our contractor companies to retain and redeploy crew where possible.”
He added that with the platform’s new role, the focus is now on supporting reliable operations at lower cost, and ultimately on securing a future for the northern North Sea business.
Production on Eider ceased in early January and the transition to utility mode will take place over the course of this year. Shell, the original developer of the fields, started production through Eider Alpha in 1988.
2/1/2018
