Monday 6 August 2018

Crondall Energy, together with the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, have joined forces with international oil and gas firms to explore whether a new reusable production buoy concept could help extend North Sea production by unlocking smaller oil and gas reservoirs.

The study will explore the feasibility of a floating Normally Unattended Installation (NUI) as a stand-alone oil production facility for marginal fields in a North Sea environment and kicks-off the Technology Centre’s recently-announced ‘Facility of the Future’ initiative.

The multi-partner study has been initiated by FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) and Subsea specialists, Crondall Energy, who developed the technology and will be led and managed by Crondall’s subsidiary, Buoyant Production Technologies Ltd.

The study is funded by Crondall Energy, the Oil & Gas Technology Centre and a host of industry sponsors including Premier Oil, Total E&P UK, Lloyds Register, Siemens, Wärtsilä, Ampelmann and BW Offshore.

The project aims to confirm that such technology can meet the requirements of remote operations with acceptable uptime and maintenance requirements.

The NUI concept developed by Crondall Energy could be used with subsea wells, to provide the production facilities and utilities required to exploit a field.

The partners will evaluate a generic opportunity for a field in the Northern North Sea, in 150m water depth, producing 20,000 barrels of oil per day with a low to medium gas oil ratio. They will also evaluate how the lessons learned from this case study can be applied more widely in the development of North Sea marginal fields with, for example, a minimally manned compact FPSO.

The joint-industry review, will widen the application of NUIs and demonstrate that they can offer improved performance and lower life-cycle costs.

The study will be conducted in two phases over eight months, evaluating the technical and commercial feasibility of the concepts developed.

Siemens’ participation in this study provides an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of its Topsides 4.0 digital life cycle approach to rotating equipment and to electrical, instrumentation, controls and telecoms (EICT).

Wärtsilä’s participation in this study is very much in line with its Smart Marine Ecosystem vision, which foresees a future where a smart, connected and digitalized approach sets new standards for the entire industry.

The Oil & Gas Technology Centre - ‘Facility of the Future’ initiative to transform oil and gas developments