Lancaster oil field progress

HURRICANE Energy remains on course to extract the first oil from its Lancaster field around 150km west of Lerwick in the first half of 2019.

Well completion operations for the Lancaster early production system have now been concluded.

Both production wells for the development – which is expected to initially produce 17,000 barrels of oil per day – are now ready to be tied into the subsea infrastructure.

The installation of the mooring systems is currently ongoing, and it will be followed by the implementation of SURF – subsea umbilicals, risers and flow lines.

Hurricane chief executive Dr Robert Trice said: “I’m pleased to report that we have concluded well completion operations safely, bringing us another step closer to first oil.”

A turret buoy mooring system for the development, meanwhile, recently left Lerwick Harbour.

The 1,200 tonne buoy was delivered to Lerwick from Dubai on board the Jumbo Kinetic which berthed at Mair’s Pier East in mid-June to lift the system from her deck into the water.

Anchored to the seabed, it will form part of the early production system’s turret mooring system around which the floating production, storage and offloading vessel Aoka Mizu will weather-vane.

Port authority deputy chief executive and harbourmaster Captain Calum Grains said the buoy is “another example of the versatility of the deep-water port in servicing subsea developments in the North Sea and Atlantic”.