Production from Serica Energy’s Erskine (SEN, 33/1) Field in the U.K. North Sea is unlikely to restart until later this year to enable a foam cleaning pig to be recovered from the Lomond to Everest condensate line. A targeted mid-April restart has been pushed back due to wax deposits in the area of the blockage inhibiting pig recovery. Serica said progress is now being made but full line clearance might take several more weeks. Production restart is now expected to be deferred until after a planned two-month mid-year Lomond maintenance shutdown is completed.

Saipem has been awarded a new contract for the offshore section of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (32/18) project—a joint venture between BP, SOCAR, Snam, Fluxys, Enagás and Axpo. The engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract involves the installation of a gas pipeline between the coastlines of Albania and Italy, across the Adriatic Sea. The work covers marine surveys, the installation of a 36-in. 105-km offshore gas pipeline, the supply and installation of an offshore fibre-optic cable, precommissioning activities and civil works at the landfalls in both Albania and Italy. The landfall in Italy is at San Foca in Puglia. Offshore installation works, which at their deepest point will reach 820 m below sea level, will be carried out using Saipem’s semisubmersible pipelay vessel Castoro Sei and the trench/pipelay barge Castoro 10. Work will begin this year.

The wellhead jacket and the wellhead access deck are en route to the ultra-HP/HT Culzean (33/2) Field in the U.K. sector of the North Sea. Heerema Vlissingen constructed the jacket, while the wellhead access deck was built by Heerema Hartlepool. Heerema Marine Contractors will perform the installation. The overall Culzean development concept consists of a wellhead platform, a central processing facility platform and a separate utilities and living quarter platform with capacity for more than 100 people. The platforms will be linked by two 100-m bridges. First gas is currently expected in 2019. Meanwhile, Heerema Zwijndrecht has completed construction of the topsides of the Montrose bridge-linked platform for Talisman Sinopec. The topsides will sail for the field in U.K. Block 22/17 in April.

Proserv has landed a multimillion-dollar contract with Statoil for the provision of production control equipment in Norway. Proserv will supply five wellhead hydraulic power units for Statoil’s Gullfaks (32/21) oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, which is undergoing an extensive topside upgrade programme. Work already has begun on the manufacturing of these systems and all five are expected to be delivered to Statoil by 2017.

GE Oil & Gas and SapuraKencana Well Services have agreed on a tie-up to provide light well intervention services in the Asia-Pacific region. The alliance should enable oil and gas operators to bring wells into production, deliver life-of-field intervention services as well as to suspend and abandon these wells later in their life without the need for mobile drilling units.

“The generally prohibitive cost of performing interventions on subsea wells has meant that the volume of hydrocarbons extracted from offshore fields with subsea wells is typically far lower than offshore fields with platform wells,” said Nick Dunn, global leader, Subsea Services & Offshore at GE Oil & Gas.

“By combining regionally based assets with local infrastructure and support, this strategic alliance will bring a cost-effective light well intervention solution to the market and create immediate value for the Asia-Pacific operator community. This alliance is an excellent example of the changing market trend where trusting relationships result in added value and cost savings for operators across the globe.”

The memorandum of understanding signifies the formalization of the business relationship between the companies, which is already in operation with an initial focus on offshore Australia.

Eni is focused on starting production at its giant offshore Zohr (33/2) gas field in Egypt by year-end 2017, the company’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said at an International Energy Agency event in Paris. Descalzi said Eni was moving fast on the project although there were some challenges. “We have already started the civil work. It is challenging, but we are focused,” Descalzi said.

Hereema Marine Contractors has been awarded a contract by Statoil for the removal of the Huldra (30/10) platform in the Norwegian North Sea. AF Offshore Decom has been awarded the contract for disposal and recycling of the platform. The Huldra Field is a Statoil-operated gas and condensate field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, northeast of Bergen. The field came onstream in November 2001 and on plateau the field produced 10.3 MMcm/d of gas.

Production from the field was shut down in 2014, and the West Epsilon will plug the field’s six wells during 2016. The platform will be removed in 2019.

Sterling Resources has delayed a planned infill development drilling campaign on its U.K. North Sea Breagh (32/21) Field. The work from the Breagh Alpha platform has been put back until 2017. The anticipated campaign comprises two new wells, A09 and A10, as well as the reentry and hydraulic stimulation of one existing well to improve performance. Wells A11 and A12 and a further hydraulic stimulation of another existing well could follow on as part of the same drilling campaign. Early stage planning for a limited scope intervention on well A04 during 2016 also is ongoing to reinstate production from this well, which is currently shut in.

Voestalpine has won a major new contract for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Europe and Russia. After having supplied 170,000 mt of linepipe plates for the first part of the offshore gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea between 2008 and 2010, the group will now produce several hundred thousand tonnes for Nord Stream 2. Nord Stream is a 1,200-km offshore pipeline transporting natural gas from the Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field and neighbouring fields in Siberia via the Baltic Sea to Germany.

Statoil plans to start production at a new gas reservoir in the Barents Sea around 2020 to keep up LNG production from its Snøhvit (33/2) Field. The Askeladd reservoir will be tied into the Snøhvit Field gas installations, according to Margareth Oevrum, Statoil’s executive vice president for technology, projects and drilling. The development currently produces gas from the Albatross and Snøhvit reservoirs. Statoil had initially estimated the third reservoir would launch production in 2014 or 2015.

Offshore