Ithaca Energy’s FPF-1 floating production unit will sail away from the Rementowa shipyard in Poland toward the end of June or early July for the U.K. North Sea Greater Stella Area (GSA).

Ithaca said good progress has been made on the final stages of the FPF-1 commissioning program, and completion of the various system handovers to operations is imminent.

The operations team has been living on the vessel since May, the marine works have been finished, and the engineering teams are in the process of closing out handover of various processing and utilities systems to the operations team.

The planned vessel inclination test remains to be performed, following which the FPF-1 will be moved to a location off the coast of Gdansk for the final marine system trials prior to being towed to the field.

Ithaca said it is anticipated that the period from sailaway to first hydrocarbons will be about three months. The vessel will be moored on location using 12 pre-installed anchor chains.

The dynamic risers and umbilicals that connect the subsea infrastructure to the vessel will then be installed. Thereafter, commissioning of various processing and utility systems requiring hydrocarbons from the field will be completed.

First production from the Stella Field is anticipated in late September 2016.

Meanwhile, access also has been secured to the Norpipe oil pipeline system, allowing oil exports from the GSA to transfer from tanker export to pipeline export during 2017.

This will significantly reduce the fixed operating costs of the GSA facilities and enhance operational uptime, resulting in improved reserves recovery and increasing the long-term value of the GSA as a production hub, Ithaca said.

The key work associated with creating a connection to the system has been successfully executed as part of a fast-track operational program undertaken during the planned 2016 pipeline maintenance shutdown. Acceleration of this work was made possible as a result of a conventional tie-in point on the system being vacated by a third-party field disconnecting from the pipeline. This provided a unique opportunity for a lower cost, lower risk connection to be made.

Norpipe runs about 350 km from the Ekofisk offshore production facilities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to a dedicated oil processing facility at Teesside in the U.K., with various U.K. fields exporting into the system via a spurline.

Ithaca also has taken advantage of the downturn in industry activity to secure attractive contracting terms, including a lump sum contract for the installation of the 44-km pipeline required from the FPF-1 to the Norpipe system.

The net capex associated with the work program is about $20 million, with the majority being paid in 2017.

Offshore