North Sea Britannia platform taking shape

Britannia platform's production deck is placed above the main deck at Trafalgar John Brown's fabrication site in Teesside, U.K.

Another step in development of Britannia field in the U.K. North Sea has taken place with completion of a topsides deck stacking operation during a 4 day period.

Joint operators Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. and Chevron U.K. Ltd. expect to begin production in fourth quarter 1998.

Britannia is the U.K.'s largest undeveloped gas field, with estimated reserves of 2.6 tcf of gas and 140 million bbl of condensate.

Also in the U.K. North Sea, Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Co. has begun production from Beaufort gas field, which lies in Blocks 49/23 and 49/28 of the southern basin.

Amoco developed the field using a single extended reach well drilled from nearby Bessemer platform by the Cecil Provine jack up rig. Development cost was 6 million ($9 million).

Beaufort

Beaufort is expected to produce as much as 30 MMcfd of gas during a 4 year life. Gas is exported via Bessemer by pipeline to Amoco's Indefatigable 49/23AT platform and on to Bacton terminal.

Each field partner is responsible for sale of its equity gas.

Kent Davis, Amoco's southern North Sea asset manager, said, "Advanced drilling technology is enhancing our capability to develop small but important North Sea gas fields.

"This is in line with our strategy of maximizing use of existing North Sea infrastructure and developing satellite fields around our core area of operations."

Beaufort partners are operator Amoco 30.77%, British Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. 30.77%, Amerada Hess Ltd. 23.08%, and Enterprise Oil plc 15.38%.

Last year Amoco brought on stream Davy and Bessemer fields as satellites of Indefatigable. Davy and Bessemer platforms were the first monotowers installed in the U.K. North Sea.

Mobil North Sea Ltd. used the design to develop Galahad field. Amoco is considering development of other finds near Indefatigable using the same concept.

Britannia

Trafalgar John Brown is assemblying Britannia topsides at its Teesside yard in Northeast England. The stacking operation involved three decks and equipment weighing more than 3,000 metric tons.

The first move was to lift the 650 metric ton production deck with four giant cranes. Meanwhile, the 1,300 metric ton main deck was carried on trailers out of its fabrication shed and positioned beneath the production deck. The production deck was then lowered onto the main deck.

A 100 metric ton mezzanine deck was then lifted into position on the main deck. Finally, the 750 metric ton weather deck was placed on top.

A further 89 items, including separators, were lifted into position during the operation.

The 20,700 metric ton Britannia jacket is being built by Dragados Offshore SA in Cadiz. It is scheduled to leave the yard in June 1997.

Modules fabricator SLP Engineering Ltd. of Teesside is 20% of the way through its Britannia work. The drilling module is most advanced, slated for completion in August 1997.