A North Sea oil firm has dropped plans to use a revolutionary new technology to extract resources from a previously abandoned field – but insists it remains committed to the system.
Enegi Oil and AB Technology had been looking to deploy a production buoy on the Fyne field, which would house production and processing equipment.
But now Enegi is to use a self-installing floating tower, developed by Reading-based engineers GMC, to develop the field instead.
“The final decision was taken recently as part of discussions with DECC regarding the FDP and reflects both the particular engineering complexities of the Fyne field and the fact that using the production buoy solution would have required releiance upon the provision of long lead-time subsea equipment.
“The impact of these itmes would have been to make the development schedule too tight.”
The use of the buoy on the Fyne project had been seen as a pioneering move, with talks opened by Enegi and ABT with other firms over its use on marginal fields.
Despite dropping plans for its use on Fyne, however, Enegi insisted it was still firmly behind the system.
“The change in development solution should not be interpreted as any deficiency in the production byoy solution, rather as demonstrative of the inherent flexibility of the marginal field intiative business model and its ability to adapt to the most appropriate solution for field development on a case by case basis.”
See the floating tower in action below
The news comes just days after Enegi posted a £1.3million loss for 2013, as the company said it was increasing its focus on marginal oil projects such as Fyne, and the two further UKCS licences picked up late last year.
A field development plan for Fyne is set to be submitted by the end of summer this year, with the company eyeing start-up by November 2016.
The firm said it was also splitting its joint venture with AB Technology into two subsidiaries. One – ABTOG Equity – wll go after potential oil licences while the second, to be called Marginal Field Development, will provide technology solutions for partners looking to use the buoy technology on oil projects.
“The restructuring of ABTOG has been arrived at after engagement with industry at all levels, including operators, service providers and financiers,” said Enegi chief executive Alan Minty.
“It’s adoption will create a structure better aligned to the industry enabling us to maximise the potential of ABTOG.”
