BP is one of a trio of oil majors to celebrate North Sea milestones this past week.
Last week, the operator’s Clair Ridge drilling platform modules began their historic journey to the west of Shetland.
The final modules for the £4.5billion investment left the HHI yard in Ulsan, South Korea, marking the end of the project’s fabrication stage there.
They will travel to the North Sea via Singapore and the Cape of Good Hope.
The modules are expected to arrive in the Clair field, located 75km to the west of the Shetland Islands, in May where they will be installed using the Heerma heavy lift crane vessel.
Days after BP celebrated the loadout, Maersk made the first steel cut on its landmark North Sea Cuzlean field.
At the time chief executive Jakob Thomasen said: “Starting the fabrication of the topsides is an important milestone. When the field begins to produce in 2019, Culzean will become a key contributor to Maersk Oil’s ambition to become a Top 5 operator in the North Sea in the 2020s, and provide around 5% of UK gas demand at peak production. Maersk Oil and coventurers’ investment will also support employment in both the UK and Asian supply chains.”
On Sunday, Talisman Sinopec UK rounded out the week of major North Sea breakthroughs when its new Montrose platform began its journey to the Central North Sea.
The topsides for the Montrose Bridge Linked Platform (BLP) sailed from the Heerema Fabrication Group’s Zwijndrecht yard 12 miles south of Rotterdam.
It will make a short stopover in Schiedam, where an 80-tonne pedestal crane and the upper sections of the exhaust stacks will be attached, before travelling 420 nautical miles to the Montrose area located in Block 22/17, in the Central North Sea.
The project is expected to extend the life of the Montrose Area fields by at least 13 years, to beyond 2030, and unlock an additional 100 million boe of reserves.
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