Premier Oil’s Catcher FPSO has commenced its maiden journey to the North Sea, it was today confirmed.
The FPSO left the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore for the Catcher field in the UK North Sea. The BW Offshore vessel is expected to reach its final destination in the final quarter of this year, where it will begin a seven-year fixed term contract with Premier Oil.
The operator also has extension options up to 18 years. The total contract value is $2.3billion.
“The BW Catcher has been completed on time and within budget, and we are especially pleased with the good HSE performance during the construction project. We have worked over 11 million man hours without a lost time injury and in total around 19 million man hours. The FPSO is now underway to the North Sea for hook-up at the Catcher field, and with first oil scheduled later this year,” said Carl K. Arnet, the chief executive of BW Offshore.
BW Catcher has an oil storage capacity of 650,000 barrels and a processing capacity of 60,000 barrels per day. The FPSO has a design life of 20 years of uninterrupted operations, and will be moored using a Submerged Turret Production system.
The Catcher field was discovered by the Catcher well drilled in May 2010.
The development concept was formally agreed by partners in December 2013 and UK government approval was received in June 2014. The sanctioned development entails 20 subsea wells on the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields which will be tied back to a leased FPSO. The oil will be offloaded by tankers while the gas will be exported through the SEGAL facilities. The 96 mmboe Catcher project is scheduled to deliver first oil in the second half of 2017.
Significant cost savings have been achieved since sanction of the Catcher project with forecast gross capex to first oil now anticipated at $1.3 bn, 20 per cent below that originally sanctioned. Total capex forecast is $1.6 billion, 29 per cent lower than the sanctioned estimate.
Premier increased its interest in the Catcher area by 15% to 50% in 2012 as a result of the EnCore acquisition and acquired operatorship of the project. The partners in the Catcher area development are Premier (50 per cent, operator), Cairn, MOL and Dyas (10%).