UK North Sea independent Fairfield Energy has taken over duty holder responsibilities from operations and maintenance contractor Amec for its Dunlin Alpha platform.
The company chief operating officer Ian Sharp has described the move as a “full and logical progression”; moreover, the relationship with Amec will continue.
Fairfield took over the reins at midnight March 31. The transition follows a period of extensive modifications and improvements to the former Shell installation with a view to assuring “many years” of future production.
More than $560million (£350million) has been invested since 2008, covering both operating costs, capital investment on topsides and infrastructure improvements to the asset cluster.
The change of status also comes on the back of recently agreed UK decommissioning tax relief through a process known as “post-tax securitisation”. In essence, this covers future costs of asset decommissioning.
Fairfield says it now has in place the organisational structure, capabilities and capacity to accommodate growth in the North Sea.
Sharp told Energy: “Moving to a position where we fulfil all operator responsibilities is a positive and logical progression for Fairfield and demonstrates our commitment to the North Sea.
“While we have been preparing for this transition over many months, we believe that taking this step is entirely consistent with the recently published Wood Review, which we welcome, and it positions us for any future opportunities that may present themselves as Sir Ian’s recommendations come in to play.”
Sharp said too that Amec had played a “fundamental role” in the successful works completed to date to extend the life of Dunlin.
“We will continue to build upon the effective relationship, initially established in 2008, through two new contracts to serve our operator support and brownfield engineering and construction needs going forward.
“A huge amount of work was completed to ensure that all of the processes were in place to allow a seamless duty holder transfer, from rolling out new IT systems to presenting the updated safety case. I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work and support.”
Alan Johnstone, MD of Amec’s Brownfield and Asset Management Operations, said: “We look forward to further developing our relationship with Fairfield as we deliver the operator support and brownfield engineering and construction requirements.
“Amec has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Fairfield through the Dunlin platform and is proud to continue to be involved in its future success.”
The Dunlin cluster is located nearly 200km north-east of Shetland and comprises the Dunlin and Dunlin South-west fields together with the Merlin and Osprey fields, in which Fairfield holds the majority 70% stake; with Mitsubishi owning the rest.
The assets were bought off Shell, Exxon, OMV and Statoil for an undisclosed sum with the deal closing in December 2007.
The facilities in the cluster include the Dunlin A platform and subsea infrastructure for the Dunlin South-west, Merlin and Osprey fields.
The platform, which is located nearly 200km north-east of the Shetland Isles, processes production from the main Dunlin field and the Osprey and Merlin subsea fields which are tried back to the platform.
Dunlin was discovered by Shell in 1973 and entered production in 1978. The Alpha platform is a first generation 229,000-tonne concrete gravity base structure with a topsides weight of over 15,600 tonnes.
Fairfield is backed by a syndicate of private and institutional investors from North America and Europe. The syndicate is jointly led by Warburg Pincus and Riverstone, and its members include 4D Global Energy Funds, CDP Capital and KERN Partners.