Oil & Gas UK Economic Report 2015

Looking Forward With the UK offshore oil and gas industry now focused on the shared agenda of MER UK, the Golden Eagle Area Development has the ability to provide the UKCS with a new hub for potential future oil and gas finds. Ray Riddoch, Nexen’s UK managing director, says: “Golden Eagle adds significant production volumes to our North Sea business today and is a potential hub for future discoveries. “More fundamentally, our project team has proved that North Sea mega-projects such as Golden Eagle can still be done and delivered safely and efficiently. We look forward to applying the lessons we’ve learned from Golden Eagle to future Nexen projects in the North Sea and elsewhere.”

The safe transfer of the decks from Dubai to the North Sea required a 30-day voyage and managing security issues in and around the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, including the threat of piracy. This section of the journey was preceded with a high-degree of planning, collaboration and communication with partners in the maritime industry, security and the military. In fact, this phase of the development saw a new world record set. The safe delivery of the 13,191.98 tonnes of PUQ deck was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the heaviest load moved by self-propelled modular trailers (SPMTs). An official Guinness World Record certificate was presented to Lamprell at a ceremony in April 2014. Taking Shape Ahead of the various decks and platform modules arriving, work took place in 2013 to install two sets of jackets, both weighing around 6,000 tonnes. The jackets, piled securely in the seabed, are as tall as the London Eye and were manufactured by Heerema in Holland. The subsea installation campaign with Technip also kicked off in 2013 with installation of infield and oil and gas export pipeline routes. The PUQ deck was installed in May 2014, enabling the project to move into the final phase of development and start the countdown to first production. This marked a major transition point. The development project team now had to arrange to hand over responsibility for the asset to the operations team, which would manage the platform once production commenced. Golden Eagle Takes Flight Withthefinalfacilitieshook-upandoffshorecommissioning completed over the summer of 2014, Nexen began to import gas to the platform in mid-October to prepare for first oil production. First oil arrived on 30 October – 47 days ahead of schedule and under budget. Following first oil, the Nexen team focused on ensuring a safe and reliable ramp up to full production in 2015 with excellent progress made towards plateau rates of 70,000 boepd in 2015. A major part of this work includes enabling production from the Solitaire field, located to the north east of the Golden Eagle platform. Oil produced from Golden Eagle enters the Flotta pipeline system at Talisman’s Claymore platform and more than doubles the crude throughput at the Flotta terminal in Orkney. The introduction of Golden Eagle liquids will significantly improve the quality of Flotta Blend, meriting a new name – Flotta Gold.

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Golden Eagle’s production, utilities and quarters deck

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ECONOMIC REPORT 2015