From the North Sea (NT): Centrica is mulling an fpso solution for the redevelopment of the East Frigg fields in Norway, originally developed by Elf for gas production.

The UK-based operator has appointed Stavanger consultancy Petrolink to perform a screening study for the subsea system. The study will produce recommendations - with capex estimates - for subsea templates, flowlines and the riser system including diameters and overall heat transfer coefficient solutions, which will be further matured into a feasibility study for the fpso concept. The study is due to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

The East Frigg accumulations consist of the Gamma and Delta discoveries, with combined reserves of 79mmbbl and 3.5bcm, according to the Norwegian Petroluem Directorate. They lie in block 25/2 of the North Sea, an area now lacking in infrastructure following the removal of the original Frigg complex facilities.

Taking the circular route

From the Editor: In other floater news out of Norway, Sevan Marine has confirmed that it will handle the FEED work for Premier Oil’s upcoming Bream fpso development.

This is one of those really badly kept secrets. Once the licence group abandoned plans to use a converted tanker for this project (too expensive) and opted for a newbuild, it became clear that a Sevan-type circular floater was in the frame. Partner (now operator) Premier has been showing a circular floater in its corporate presentations for more than a year.

The associated subsea production system will feature separate drilling template and manifold. In addition to wells on the main Bream field, there will be water injection at Bream SW. There will also be production from Mackerel, a 17km tieback, and possibly Herring.

Originally a BG Norge project, Premier and Kufpec bought out BG’s stake last summer and then unitised their holdings across a number of licences.

Offshore