EnQuest has offered up work for “subsea clearance” at its historic Heather field as it forges ahead with its decommissioning plan.
The tender, posted on the North Sea Transition Authority’s Pathfinder service, outlines a contract to remove “debris” from the Northern North Sea field for a value of less than £25 million.
EnQuest has said the estimated tender date is 1 June next year but there is a “possible tender due in H2 2024”.
Work will take place across Heather and the adjacent Broom oil field. Broom produced through a subsea tieback to Heather and kicked off production in 2004.
The decommissioning scope for the project has been broken down into four “workstreams” by the operator.
Heather’s history
The North Sea operator announced the decommissioning of the near 50-year-old field in 2020 after a fire in a compressor module hit the platform in October 2019.
At the time, Shetland Coastguard confirmed that two casualties were flown to Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick.
EnQuest handed in a decommissioning plan for the field the year after it called time on Heather.
A swathe of contracts have already been dished out to industry heavy hitters such as Saipem and Allseas.
In 2022 Allseas landed work to remove the Heather topsides and the following year Saipem’s S7000 crane vessel was contracted to remove the platform’s upper jacket.
© EnQuestHeather’s topside is set to be removed as part of a single lift operation next year.
Much to the dismay of UK decommissioning commentators, EnQuest also announced in 2023 that the Heather platform will be brought to Denmark for decommissioning.
Heather, which stands 58 miles to the north-east of Shetland, was first installed in 1977 and started producing the following year.
It reached peak production levels in 1982 when the platform produced 36,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
EnQuest has a 37.5% decommissioning liability after acquiring the asset in 2010 – Ithaca Energy and Shell each hold 31.25%. The operator also holds a 63.0% liability for Broom.
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