Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Decipher Production Ltd. has delivered first oil from the Orlando field subsea tieback to the Ninian Central platform in the UK northern North Sea.
Last June, the Diamond Offshore semisubmersibleOcean Guardian drilled and completed the 3/3b-13Y development well, encountering a fully oil-bearing horizontal pay interval of 3,946 ft (1,203 m).
Results were better than expected with good porosity and oil saturation. Clean-up operations confirmed the well could achieve the anticipated peak rates of more than 10,000 b/d.
Construction work, completed late last year by TechnipFMC, included installation, trenching, and burial of an 11-km (6.8-mi) pipe-in-pipe production pipeline and umbilical and the installation and pull-in of the production riser and dynamic umbilical to the platform.
Ninian operator Canadian Natural Resources recently installed new topsides facilities and modified existing equipment to accommodate throughput from Orlando.
Production will head through the Ninian Pipeline System to the Sullom Voe Terminal on Shetland for processing and offtake.
Decipher CEO Steve Bowyer said the company is targeting the acquisition of further high value development opportunities in the region, including the Senna and Mansell discoveries.
Last year CGG acquired new 3D broadband seismic over the licenses, and the results should help determine the joint Senna/Mansell development potential (Decipher estimates contingent recoverable resources at up to 70 MMboe). One possibility could be the formation of a new northern North Sea production hub.
04/04/2019
