Maersk Oil UK has appointed a contractor to build the wellhead jacket and piles for its £3billion Culzean gas field project in the UK North Sea.
Heerema Hartlepool has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the well head platform jacket and piles, as well as the well head access deck and access ways.
The company plans to build the well head access deck and access ways in Hartlepool, while the jacket will be built in Vlissingen in the Netherland.
Maersk yesterday said it expected the contract to be completed ahead of the drilling startup for the project in the second quarter of 2016, although this is subject to a final investment decision next year.
Maersk Oil UK managing director Martin Rune Pedersen yesterday said: “The Culzean project continues to progress well. This award has been made on schedule and three weeks after steel cutting began on the heavy duty jack-up rig.”
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Priti Patel MP said the Culzean project, which is expected to meet 5% of the UK gas demand in 2020/21, would not be possible without the government’s ultra high pressure, high temperature cluster area allowance.
She said: “The new allowance builds on the existing work that the government has done with industry through field allowances, which has helped create new jobs through record levels of investment. Oil & Gas UK estimates the government’s allowances directly incentivised £7billion of investment last year.”
Earlier this year Maersk awarded a contract to Hercules Offshore to provide a new, heavy duty jack-up drilling rig for the project.
Hercules has since set about developing a permanent presence in the UK, and has started a recruitment drive in Aberdeen. The firm expects to create 100 offshore and 20 onshore jobs as a result of the Culzean contract.
First gas from the central North Sea field, which lies nearly 145 miles east of Aberdeen, is expected in 2019.
Forecast plateau gas production is in a range of 400million-500million standard cubic feet per day.
Maersk is the operator, with a 49.99% stake, alongside JX Nippon (34.01%) and BP (16%).
Recommended for you
