Hull completed for North Sea Western Isles floater

Feb. 20, 2014
COSCO’s shipyard in Qidong, China, has launched the hull of the FPSO for the Western Isles development in the UK northern North Sea.

Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK – COSCO’s shipyard in Qidong, China, has launched the hull of the FPSO for the Western Isles development in the UK northern North Sea.

Operator Dana Petroleum and partner Cieco are developing the Harris and Barra oil fields 160 km (99 mi) east of the Shetlands and 12 km (7.5 mi) west of the Tern field. The program calls for at least five production and four water injection wells plus two exploration wells tied back to thenewbuild FPSO, with oil offloaded to shuttle tankers.

Diamond Drilling’s semisubmersibleOcean Nomad started top-hole drilling last August, and to date four subsea trees have been installed at the offshore location.

The gas export pipeline will be laid this summer, to be followed by installation next summer of the FPSO. Dana anticipates first oil in 2015.

02/20/2014