Project Briefs For March 5

TRANS ADRIATIC PIPELINE (31/14) has launched a pair of pre-qualification procedures for the 105km offshore pipeline section in the Adriatic Sea. The first comprises work on the offshore section of the 36in pipeline between Albania and southern Italy. The EPCI scope includes civil works at the landfalls in both Albania and Italy, as well as survey, seabed and pre-commissioning activities. The greatest depth the pipeline will be laid is 820m.

The second pre-qualification process is for supply of offshore line pipes and coating. Following the selection stage, TAP aims to issue the related ITTs for offshore construction by May 2015.

TAP will transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz II (31/12) field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The 870km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.

Norwegian pipeline operator Gassco has taken over the new 106km 12in gas export line from BG’s KNARR (31/19) fpso development which push out 1.7mcm/d of rich gas into the FLAGS system and then to St Fergus.

Subsea 7 has landed a $240mn two-year extension to contracts for DSV AND ROVSV SERVICES from Shell UK. S-7 will continue to provide subsea construction, inspection, repair, maintenance and decommissioning services to Shell's UK offshore fields and facilities under the deals which begin in 2016. The dsv contract will be delivered on a 24/7 basis through to the third quarter 2018.

McDermott will fabricate the production manifold and the subsea isolate valve module for Eni’s deepwater JANGKRIK (31/6) fpso project, offshore Indonesia. The work, 3,200t of fabrication to be carried out at its indigenous Batam Island facility, is being done under a subcontract with FMC.

McD’s has also picked up SURF work - installation of a replacement umbilical and two new power and communication cables - as part of bigger fabrication jobs in the Middle East for Saudi Aramco and Qatar Petroleum.

Technip will supply around 200km of flexible pipe to Petrobras for the LULA ALTO (31/19) development, offshore Brazil. The flexibles, to be installed in up to 2,500m and for high-pressure operations, will be used for production, water and gas injection and gas lift. The agreement qualifies as ‘major’ under Technip’s definition which is over Ⓤ500mn.

Heereman Marine Contractors has extended its master service agreement with DOF SUBSEA covering survey and positioning services for its fleet...IKM Ocean Design has picked up the detailed design contract for the SURF portion of Statoil’s JOHAN SVERDRUP (31/21) development in Norway...DeepOcean Brasil, using Deep Endeavour, has had its IRM SERVICES and flexibles repair deal with Petrobras extended by a year.

From Houston (BN): ConocoPhillips has won approval of its plan to drill six deepwater exploration wells in the far southwestern GULF OF MEXICO.

There will be four in Port Isabel 791, one in Alaminos Canyon 749 and one in AC750. COP plans to use managed pressure drilling, which is not new technology but when used on a mobile rig is not considered proven in the GoM. The wells will be drilled over the next five years in waters ranging from 1,100- 1,200m. It is an under- explored area, more than 80km west of Shell’s Perdido Hub.

Freeport-McMoRan has received the go-ahead of its plan to drill five wells in its Sun prospect in Atwater Valley 198. The wells are to be drilled between February 2018 and June 2020. The prospect is in 1,480m about 267km south-southeast of New Orleans.

Cobalt Energy has said it spudded the North Platte-2 (SEN, 31/21) appraisal well in Garden Banks 959 early last month. This is the first appraisal of a 2012 discovery that penetrated 885m net oil pay in multiple inboard Lower Tertiary reservoirs. Cobalt operates and holds a 60% interest. Total owns the rest.

Providence Resources says seismic data acquired by Polarcus over the Lower Cretaceous DROMBEG prospect in the southern Porcupine Basin, offshore south-west Ireland, looks encouraging.

Initial evaluation of the fast-track 3D volume has revealed ‘seismic morphologies’ in the Drombeg prospect which are consistent with a large deep-water fan system. The data also suggest that the Drombeg fan is being sourced from the Porcupine Bank via discrete sediment feeder systems. Further results from the analysis are due in April.

John O’Sullivan, technical director at Providence, said that whilst much further work remains to be carried out, the company is ‘obviously encouraged’ by the initial results.

Farm-out discussions with ‘a number of major international oil companies’ are underway.

Lansdowne Oil & Gas has been given the green light by the Irish government for a farm in by Petronas subsidiary Kinsale Energy on SEL 4/07 in the North Celtic Sea offshore Ireland. As operator (80% stake) of the licence, Kinsale will fund 100% of the costs of drilling a well on the MIDLETON prospect. Well planning is underway.