BP has handed UK group Amec the engineering services contract covering development of the Tubular Bells and Kodiak discoveries in deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
It is the international engineering and project management company’s Houston office that will be handling the work, though that team will doubtless call on the huge expertise resident in Aberdeen and London.
Amec is tasked with evaluating several potential development choices for selection of a preferred project option to take forward to front-end engineering design (FEED) which provides an opportunity to influence overall cost, weight, schedule and facility performance at the early stages of the project.
This contract is the group’s first deepwater work to be executed under the global agreement with BP for offshore engineering and project management services and follows the announcement in November, 2008, of the contract for support on the BP Clair project in the UK North Sea.
Neil Bruce, chief operating officer of the natural resources division, said: “I am delighted that Amec has been selected to work on this major development. We are committed to providing BP with support consistent with its objectives to deliver this project safely, on time and on budget.”
Reinforcing the Bruce comment, Terrance Ivers, president of Amec’s Oil & Gas Americas business, added: “Our team relishes the opportunity to meet the challenges inherent in development of a robust topsides design. A partnership with a customer such as BP and their world-class project makes for an enthusiastic project team and reinforces Amec’s status as an employer of choice for talented, motivated professionals.”
The Tubular Bells-Kodiak award continues Amec’s long history of successful support of BP projects, including the Mardi Gras Transportation System to deliver deepwater Gulf of Mexico production to market. Amec’s role in the Mardi Gras project encompassed engineering and project management services on the onshore and offshore pipelines, facilities and platforms.
The big question now is what development option will be chosen. A prior concept risk assessment conducted by IRC of Houston focused on risks to personnel associated with four development options involving tension-leg platform (TLP) and spar-hull configurations.
Tubular Bells is located on Mississippi Canyon block 725 in water depths of about 4,300ft (1,310m). It was located in 2003 by the Transocean semi-submersible, Deepwater Horizon. The first exploratory well encountered 190ft (58m) of net oil pay. Further appraisal drilling included an apparently indifferent result from the third well.
Kodiak is located on Mississippi Canyon block 771 in 5,000ft (1,525m) water depth. The 2008 discovery well encountered some 500ft (152m) of net hydrocarbon-bearing sands in Middle and Lower Miocene reservoirs.
It is understood that Kodiak was the clincher in terms of development of Tubular Bells.
BP said at the time that this find had “the potential to become an important new source of production for the USA”.
For now, at least, a third and related discovery is not included. The Freedom find on Mississippi Canyon Block 948 was drilled in 6,100ft (1,860m) of water using the Deepwater Horizon. The discovery well encountered more than 550ft (168m) net of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in Middle and Lower Miocene reservoirs. However, appraisal will be required to determine the size and commerciality of the discovery.