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REGIONAL REPORT Northwest Europe been the largest turret built for any FPSO, moored with 20 the North Sea some of the in? ll developments have been mooring lines. “It’s really pushing the envelope as far as tech- below $30/bbl. There’s a premium West of Shetland.” nology is concerned,” Blake said in 2013. Part of the reason is the water depth and the number of lines coming into the turret, Access to infrastructure but also the conditions, which make riser clashing a concern. One of the big problems is gas export, says Swann. “This

The design wave height for the area was 108 feet, with a is something companies have been trying to look at and work 140-foot survival wave weight. out. Existing developments, Foinhaven and Schiehallion (now

In addition, there’s current shear, through the water column, Quad 204) export through the West of Shetland Pipeline Sys- in multiple directions (which the installed risers and ? ow- tem (WASP), which has limited capacity. When you get things lines would need to live with), and even current (1 meter per like Cambo and Rosebank, you need an export solution for the second) on the bottom. Blake said wave heights run at more gas. You can’t ? are it forever. So, it’s a challenge, how to get than 3 meters more than 50% of the time, West of Shetland the gas to market.” (compared with the Gulf of Mexico seeing less than 2 meters The OGA has an area development plan to try and address almost 90% of the time). A multi-year installation window the problem and that’s for discoveries already known about, would have also been needed in these conditions – Blake was but few details were available. estimating four years – where weather windows are limited. Even further down the line, there’s another big challenge.

These issues push up costs. According the Wood Mack- Current exploration bits are focusing on the Faroes-Shetland enzie, the likes of Rosebank and Cambo come in at $40- Trough area, while pre-drill work has focused on the Rockall 50/bbl. “That’s pretty high,” says Kevin Swann, Research Trough – including £40 million ($48.6 million) of government analyst, Wood Mackenzie. “Globally, for all projects funded seismic data acquisition and frontier focused licensing sanctioned in the last three years, it’s below $35/bbl. In rounds. But that’s a story for another day. —

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