Page 136: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2014)

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Vessels

Unmanned buoy technology is increasingly looking like an attractive option for marginal ? eld developers in the North

Sea and further a? eld.

Elaine Maslin looks at why and some of the options on the market.

An unmanned mission

ABT Oil & Gas’ production buoy concept. Image from to the North Sea

ABT Oil & Gas. 20-year-old concept is receiv- a result, the licenses in which they sit these were conversions, from a CALM ing increasing attention in the have been relinquished. Some projects, buoy and a metocean data buoy.

A

North Sea as operators look for although fundamentally economic, Last year, production buoy technology options to develop marginal ? elds. are stranded due to a lack of nearby started to make the move to the main-

The concept is for unmanned produc- infrastructure. stream. Major engineering ? rms AMEC tion buoys, which could cost-effectively When infrastructure is nearby, projects and Wood Group PSN joined the market, support production from small or mar- can also struggle to agree tariffs associ- by agreeing partnerships with technol- ginal ? elds. ated with using third party infrastruc- ogy development companies Unmanned

About 60% of newly discovered ? elds ture, for oil and gas processing, storage Production Buoy (UPB) and ABT Oil have less than 20MMboe recoverable and utility provision. In the North Sea, & Gas, respectively. China Offshore reserves, according to Guernsey-based failure by multiple partners to negotiate Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) investment ? rm Shore Capital. satisfactory terms for tie-backs to existing also signed an agreement with UPB for

Citing IHS data, independent, infrastructure has notoriously held back a manufacturing.

Manchester-based explorer Enegi, which number of projects. Here we take a look at the technologies

Unmanned production buoys could also is a joint venture partner in unmanned being developed. provide an early production solution and production buoy technology ? rm ABT

Ocean Resource or end of ? eld life redevelopment concept.

Oil & Gas, says there are 88 ? elds in the North Sea containing less than To date, most buoy technology has Under a former name, Ocean Resource, 15MMboe, which it believes no conven- been limited to control buoys, housing based in Monmouthshire, UK, patented tional offshore unit can currently develop control technology for subsea wells, its ? rst remotely controlled buoy concept economically. In addition, it says there with remote communications, as well as in 1979. are a total 116 ? elds with < 30MMboe. power, ? are, monitoring, metocean data, Based on experience on the early

Many are proven discoveries that have or of? oading buoys. Condeep platforms, in the 1970s and remained undeveloped because capital Only half a dozen control or ? are buoys 1980s, and in civil engineering, the ? rm and operating costs are thought to be too have been installed to date, between 1993 has engineered three buoys for offshore high to justify commercialization. As and 2000, according to Intecsea. Two of production: a three-tether ? are buoy for

May 2014 | OE oedigital.com 138 138_OE0514_Vessels4_unmanned.indd 138 4/19/14 10:33 AM