The Hummingbird Spirit FPSO will head off from the North Sea today to the Cromarty Firth – ahead of an uncertain future for the vessel which could see it scrapped.
A notice to mariners shows the floating production storage and offloading vessel will be towed to the Port of Nigg over the coming days, having served the Spirit Energy Chestnut field since 2008.
It comes after operator Teekay (NYSE: TK) agreed to sell the vessel to an unnamed third party last month – and has refused to disclose the buyer when asked by Energy Voice.
Reports elsewhere have suggested the vessel is lined up to be scrapped, but this has not been disclosed by New York-listed Teekay.
According to the mariners’ notice, the Hummingbird Spirit is due in the Cromarty Firth on Wednesday, July 28.
Teekay said it intends to deliver the vessel to the buyer in “June/July” and said publicly last month that the sale covers decommissioning costs.
At the time, CEO Kenneth Hvid said: “We have continued to make good progress on winding down our FPSO business, which we expect to be largely completed by the end of 2022. As expected, the Hummingbird FPSO ceased production on the Chestnut oil field at the end of March 2022, and we recently entered into an agreement to sell the FPSO unit to a third party.
“Through this sale, Teekay will not only avoid incurring costs related to recycling the unit, but we also currently expect that the sales proceeds will be sufficient to largely cover the Hummingbird FPSO’s remaining decommissioning costs.”
Teekay’s share price is down 14% over the last month to $2.89.
Costs covered
Teekay has also sold the PEtrojarl FOinaven FPSO, formerly of the namesake BP oilfield West of Shetland and is on its way to Hunterston.
The firm said it will proceed with green recycling for Foinaven under a lump-sum payment from the undisclosed customer.
If a company is seeking to take the vessel out of UK waters for decommissioning then a request has to be made to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
Last year Teekay took the Petrojarl Banff FPSO to Denmark for recycling.
The Hummingbird Spirit is currently being disconnected from its moorings ahead of being towed from the field.
Work to recover the moorings lines will start immediately and is expected to take up to a fortnight.
A portion of ground chain and 12 suction anchors will be left behind to be recovered later this year.
Spirit Energy finally announced plans in August to decommission Chestnut, following an above expected production life.
The North Sea operator said last year that the field, around 125 miles east of Aberdeen, has produced four-times as many barrels than originally expected when it came on stream in 2008 via the Hummingbird Spirit FPSO.
Over the course of its life, Chestnut has produce more than 27 million barrels of oil.
It had initially been expected to yield seven million barrels over an estimated production life of just two years.
When the final well was drilled in 2020, Spirit said the aim was to keep the field producing through to 2023.
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