Dana Petroleum’s £1billion Western Isles project is trailblazing its way to the target date for first oil, the firm’s UK boss, Paul Griffin, told Energy Voice.
Mr Griffin, the Aberdeen company’s managing director in the UK, said production was on track to start in late 2015.
Dana is already looking beyond the current scheme, involving the Harris and Barra fields in the northern North Sea, to potential further development in and around the same area, he added.
A floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO) being built in China for Dana’s Western Isles project is revolutionary for the North Sea.
It is believed to be the first FPSO destined for the UK that will have been constructed entirely in China.
The £250million-plus structure is round, which is a radical departure from the FPSO ships traditionally used in the North Sea.
MORE: In pictures – the construction of the new FPSO step by step
It will not be the first round FPSO to be used in UK waters but it will be the largest, with a storage capacity of up to 400,000 barrels of oil and handling capability for up to 40,000 barrels per day. Mr Griffin said its two-month journey from China would start around the middle of 2015.
The massive structure would then go through the Sumatran straits and around the Cape of Good Hope – “avoiding the east coast of Africa (notorious for piracy) as much as we can” – on its way to the North Sea, he added.
The Harris and Barra fields – about 100 miles east of Shetland – are estimated to contain recoverable oil reserves of around 46million barrels, and daily production is expected to reach 40,000 barrels.
Korean-owned Dana has a 77% stake in the project, with Japanese exploration and production company Cieco holding the remaining 23%.
Mr Griffin said FPSOs were increasingly likely to be built in China because shipyards elsewhere struggled to compete.
He also said circular FPSOs were likely to become more common in the North Sea.
They do not require costly turrets and are said to offer many operational advantages, compared with traditional vessels.
UK Government sanction for the Western Isles project was granted in December, 2012, and drilling got under way in August, two months ahead of schedule.
The development will account for about half of Dana’s total output when it comes on stream and has an estimated field life of 15 years.
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