Maersk Oil finishes jacket installations at Culzean in UK North Sea

The Maersk Oil-operated high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) Culzean field development in the UK North Sea has reached another milestone with the installation of all three of the project’s jackets.

Culzean field lies 145 miles east of Aberdeen and at plateau will produce 60,000-90,000 boe/d for at least 13 years, Maersk Oil says.

Maersk Oil, a wholly owned subsidiary of AP Moller-Maersk AS of Copenhagen, started drilling the first production well on Sept. 28, 2016, in the field (OGJ Online, Sept. 29, 2016).

“Culzean was sanctioned less than 2 years ago and already we’ve progressed the project over the halfway mark, said Gretchen Watkins, Maersk Oil chief executive officer. The company believes it to be on track to start natural gas production in 2019.

The installation of the central processing facilities and the utilities and living quarters jackets was completed on July 20, while the wellhead platform jacket was installed last year.

All three jackets were built by Heerema and installed using the Heerema Marine-operated Thialf crane vessel.

The combined weight of the jackets is more than 22,000 tonnes. They have a design life of longer than 40 years.

The company will now focus on finalizing construction of the three topsides and the Ailsa floating storage and offload vessel.

Culzean field was discovered in 2008. The reservoir is 4,300 m subsea at 13,500 psi pressure and at 175°C. It lies in 88 m of water. Gas will be exported via the CATS pipeline, coming onshore at Teesside.

Operator Maersk Oil holds 49.99% interest in the Culzean development. Partners include BP (Britoil) 32% and JX Nippon 18.01%.