Offshore staff
LONDON — Dagang NeXchange Berhad (DNeX), via its subsidiary Ping Petroleum UK Plc, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Cerulean Winds to kick start a partnership initiative in delivering a dedicated offshore floating wind turbine for the Avalon development in the Central North Sea.
Under the agreement, Ping and Cerulean Winds plan to establish a joint venture (JV) company to deploy and operate the floating wind turbine, which will power the Sevan Hummingbird FPSO vessel acquired by Ping in early July. The signing of the MoU was held in London.
Ping aims to connect the FPSO to a dedicated floating offshore wind turbine to power the facility, thus minimizing diesel and fuel gas usage as well as associated greenhouse-gas emissions in the UK waters. The project is set to be one of the first oil and gas production facilities to meet the UK government’s emissions reduction targets agreed in the North Sea Transition Deal in March 2021.
Ping and Cerulean Winds will also endeavor to reach terms on the power purchase agreement for the Avalon Development with the JV company.
Tan Sri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir, group managing director of DNeX, said Ping is refining its concept to integrate the FPSO with the offshore wind turbine for the Avalon development, with field development plan approval and final investment decision targeted for later this year.
“Ping is finalizing conceptual development planning after preparing front end engineering works to submit the Avalon Field development plan. In addition, Ping will apply for an innovation license under the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas Decarbonization licensing from Crown Estate Scotland. The license would allow us to operate and deploy the dedicated floating offshore wind turbine for the Avalon development,” he said.
The planned development enables Ping to expand and diversify its portfolio of producing assets while supporting the UK’s energy security and net-zero targets.
Ping also has been recently granted a 19-month extension by NSTA to the second term of the P2006 license containing Avalon. This allows the company additional time to optimize and gain full regulatory approval of the Avalon Field development plan.
With a total estimated recovery of 23 MMbbl of oil, production from the Avalon Field is expected to come onstream by mid-2025.
Additionally, Cerulean Winds previously announced a floating offshore wind and green energy proposal for Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation & Targeted Oil and Gas seabed leasing round. The initiative provides seabed leases to green energy developers to support the electrification and decarbonization of oil and gas facilities in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). Cerulean Winds’ plans to bid for multiple sites at 1.5 GW scale of floating offshore wind, which would unlock £6 billion proposed investment per site and would abate significant CO2 emissions of UKCS oil and gas assets from 2027.
08.02.2022
