Technip to connect GSA subsea facilities in North Sea

Offshore staff

PARIS– Ithaca Energy has awarded Technip (PARIS:TEC) a $230-million EPIC (engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning) subsea contract for the Greater Stella Area (GSA) development in the UK central North Sea.

GSA is focused at present on the Stella and Harrier fields as a stand-alone development using theFPF-1 floating production semisubmersible. Water depth is about 90 m (295 ft).

Technip will provide:

• Detailed design and pipelay of a 33-km (20.5-mi), 10-in. (25.4-cm) oil export line and a 63-km (39-mi), 10-in. gas export pipeline to the production platform
• Various subsea installations at the Stella Main and North drill centers including, manifolds, tee structures, flexible pipelay and spoolpiece components
• Installation of the mooring system to the production platform, and design and installation of a five-slot mid-water arch.

The company’s operating center in Aberdeen will manage the program, which should be completed during the second half of 2013. Technip’s consultancy subsea and offshore engineering company, Genesis, will complete the detailed design workscope.

Technip’s plant in Le Trait, northern France, will manufacture the flexible flowlines, the company’s Evanton Spoolbase in northern Scotland will fabricate the linepipe, and DUCO in Newcastle will provide the umbilicals.

Vessels used for the offshore campaign will include theSkandi Arctic and the Wellservicer.

Petrofac has already finished the front-end engineering and design for the upgrade and modifications to theFPF-1, which is at the Able shipyard on Teesside, northeast England, where obsolete processing equipment is being removed prior to the start of modifications. Ithaca says Petrofac should shortly select a yard for this work.

Development drilling should start late in 2012 using the jackupEnsco 100.

7/30/2012