A seven-year campaign of drilling for oil west of Shetland began yesterday, with BP announcing that the new semi-submersible rig Deepsea Aberdeen had begun operations in the Loyal oil field.
Deepsea Aberdeen is designed to operate in harsh environments, and can carry out ultra-deepwater drilling in depths up to 3,000m.
The rig will initially drill two producer wells and one injector well on the Loyal field, before moving onto the Schiehallion field to continue drilling activities.
It is part of a £7 billion investment in drilling in the North Sea and west of Shetland by BP and its partners.
Five wells are planned to be drilled before the first oil is produced from the new Glen Lyon floating, production, storage and offload (FPSO) vessel at the end of 2016.
Trevor Garlick, regional president for BP’s North Sea business, said: “The drilling campaign not only demonstrates our commitment to the region in what is a challenging time, but will also help maximise production from Schiehallion and Loyal, contributing to the long-term competitiveness of BP’s North Sea business.”
The Deepsea Aberdeen will be operated from Odfjell Drilling’s office in Aberdeen.
Odfjell Drilling CEO Simen Lieungh said: “The start of drilling operations on Deepsea Aberdeen marks another step in the development of Odfjell Drilling’s activities in the UK and harsh environment offshore regions.
“The rig design is based on our more than 40 years’ experience of drilling in the North Sea. Our offshore crew and our onshore organisation in Scotland are looking forward to working collaboratively with BP over the next seven years.”
BP and Shell each have a 50 per cent ownership interest in the Loyal field. The Schiehallion field ownership interest is split between Shell with 54.89 per cent, BP with 33.35 per cent, and OMV with 11.76 per cent Schiehallion and Loyal have produced nearly 400 million barrels of oil since production started in 1998.
The latest development aims to access the remaining estimated 450 million barrels of resource and help extend production from the fields out to 2035 and beyond.
Meanwhile the latest stage in the race to develop Scottish tidal power has been announced.
The world-leading MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth between Caithness and Orkney aims to tap into Scotland’s vast resources in tidal power, often seen as the most reliable of all renewable power sources.
It is the world’s first multi-turbine tidal stream energy project.
It was revealed yesterday that turbines for the MeyGen Project are to be tested and assembled at a yard in Easter Ross following a deal by MeyGen’s developer Atlantis to buy the Bristol-based tidal power company Marine Current Turbines.
Atlantis proposes to install four devices in the first phase of MeyGen and eventually plans to have up to 269 turbines on the seabed.
Part of the finance for the project has come from the Scottish Government through the Scottish Investment Bank.
Undersea cables will connect the turbines to the onshore Power Conversion Centre at the Ness of Quoys, Canisbay.
Atlantis bought Marine from Siemens, with Scottish energy services contractor Global Energy Group providing the loan package for the deal.
Gordon Ronaldson, executive vice president of Global Energy Group’s process and equipment business, said: “There is a real opportunity through this acquisition to establish Scotland as the centre of excellence for the sector, in terms of IP ownership, project development and manufacturing. We look forward to welcoming the enlarged Atlantis group to Nigg Energy Park and to supporting their various projects in Scotland and throughout the UK.”
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