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Oil and gas firms are to spend millions developing a new field in the North Sea after the government reported a record number of licence applications to develop the Bacchus field.
The government last week announced that the 26th licensing round had received bids for 356 blocks, areas to develop in the North Sea, the most since the first licensing round in 1964, when 394 blocks were requested. The 25th round received 277 requests.
The Bacchus oilfield in the central North Sea has estimated reserves of 18 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The news is a major boost for the North Sea oil and gas sector, which has suffered drops in investment during the financial crisis, and whose future has looked uncertain with the government’s push towards renewable energy targets.
Malcolm Webb, Oil & Gas UK’s chief executive, said: “It is clear that oil and gas will be required to meet our energy needs for decades. Around 450,000 jobs are supported by oil and gas activity and although domestic production is past its peak, the longer it can be sustained, the better the chances are of anchoring the high-technology supply chain in Aberdeen."
Knock-on effect
The Bacchus field announcement had an immediate effect on the supply chain. Aberdeen-based Subsea 7 confirmed that oil and gas developer Apache North Sea had placed a $75 million “pipeline bundle” order for Apache’s development in the Bacchus field.
Subsea 7’s engineers will design, procure, fabricate, install and commission a 7km pipeline system using the “controlled depth tow methodology”, connecting three new wells at the Bacchus development in a subsea tie-back to the existing Forties Alpha platform.
The controlled depth tow methodology was developed by Subsea 7 and involves the transportation of pre-fabricated and fully tested pipelines, control lines and umbilicals in a bundle configuration suspended between two tow vessels. Once launched from the onshore site, the bundle is transported to its offshore location at a controlled depth below the surface. On arrival at the field, the bundle is lowered to the seabed, manoeuvred into location and the carrier pipe is flooded to stabilise the bundle in its final position.
Subsea 7’s vice-president for the UK, Steph McNeill, said: “The bundle allows efficiencies to be generated by incorporating all the structures, valvework, pipelines and control systems.”