TotalEnergies (XPAR:TTE) has marked a milestone for its Ailsa floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel in the North Sea.
More than 20 million barrels of gas condensate have now been exported from the vessel, which supports the Culzean platform 150 miles east of Aberdeen.
Culzean started up in June 2019 after an investment of around £3.5bn. It is one of the largest fields in the UK sector – and the largest to be started in the UK in the last 25 years.
The Ailsa FSO, along with the bridge-linked platforms, was built in Singapore.
TotalEnergies said the 20 million barrel achievement was an “incredible milestone” for Ailsa.
It highlighted that the vessel itself is 250 metres long – the rough equivalent of 20 double-decker buses.
Condensate is received by the FSO, then offloaded by shuttle tankers and delivered to oil refineries, where it is used to produce fuels and chemicals like aviation fuel.
Gas is meanwhile exported via the UK’s CATS pipeline and taken to Teesside for processing.
At start-up, Culzean was estimated to have reserves of 250m-300m barrels of oil equivalent, and capable of covering 5% of UK gas demand.
Discovered in 2008, TotalEnergies is partnered with BP (32%) and NEO Energy (18%) on the project.
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