W I R E L I N E
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Executing a vision
The UK Continental Shelf has seen record investment in recent years in greenfield and
brownfield developments, with long-term benefits to the wider economy and energy
security.
Wireline
talks to the teams behind two mammoth projects – Mariner and
Cygnus – to gain an insight into their execution as they are steered towards production.
e-evaluation has redefined the
prospects for the Mariner and
Cygnus projects. First discovered
some decades ago, it has taken steely
determination and advanced geophysical
work to get these fields where they
are today.
For project leaders Ingolf Søreide and
Ian Conacher, the journey is only just
beginning. As vice-president for project
management at Statoil UK and asset
manager at GDF SUEZ E&P UK,
respectively, they are at the helm of two of
the most exciting new developments on the
UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
“Quite a few operators tried to make
Mariner work – it’s been a journey to
get it to commercial field development,”
explains Ingolf. This was primarily down
to the challenges associated with such a
heavy oil project and the lack of available
technologies, until now, to make it
commercially viable.
Ingolf heads up the team that is now
turning the Mariner discovery in the
northern North Sea into production
reality. The £4.5 billion project, with
The 2014 installation campaign for the £1.4 billion Cygnus
project in the southern North Sea got under way this spring
and involves the Cygnus Alpha wellhead platform deck and
three jackets, as well as the export and infield pipelines.
Pictured is the subsea isolation valve
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NEWS ROUND-UP
NEW DEvEL PMENTS
OPERATIONS
