Page 23: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2020)

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Source: Subsea UK

FAST TRACK SEAGULL

Meeting a license obligation deadline meant Neptune Energy’s Seagull project has been under a tight schedule and budget. Neptune decided to acquire the Seagull ?nd from

Apache in Q1 2018, closing the deal that August and taking over the reins in Q4 of the same year. It then faced a license commitment to get a ?eld development plan (FDP) approved, this it did by March 2019, with 21 commercial agreements reached and another 40 agreements relating to use of infrastructure and export systems, all just 16 weeks after taking control. The project was outlined by Alan Muirhead (pictured left),

Director of Projects and Engineering at Neptune Energy during Subsea Expo.

Seagull is a high-pressure, high-temperature ?eld (11,700 psi/160 degrees C), 17km from BP’s ETAP (Eastern trough Area Project) project, 230km east of Aberdeen in 95m water depth. The ?eld is projected to hold 50 MMboe gross 2P reserves. Development work started in 2019 with ?rst oil projected for 2021. It will see four wells tied back into

ETAP via a new 5km pipeline to the Heren pipeline, via a tie-in skid at the Egret manifold, and then Skua manifold. The project will include a new 17 km control umbilical, direct from ETAP. The achieve the pace to FDP four elements were needed, said Muirhead: capable and competent people, in the supply chain and at the operator; joint venture agreement (with partners BP and JAPEX – for which it was a ?rst project in the UK North Sea); commercial adaptability; and supply chain engagement. “It wasn’t about winning every battle, we had to get over the line or we didn’t have a license and didn’t have a ?eld to develop. It’s not winning every point, it’s aiming at a target,” he said. In terms of supply chain engagement, Neptune used its global alliance agreement with TechnipFMC, with an “open-book, targeted cost collaborative model” based on risk and reward. Pipelines and manifolds are due to be installed this summer and already 6% savings on the budget have been made, said Muirhead, just through the engineering piece. More will come going into installation, he says. march/april 2020 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 23