BW Offshore to Provide Newbuild FPSO for Catcher Field

BW Offshore’s Berge Helene FPSO, image courtesy Keppel Corp

In the wake of Bumi Armada’s recent announcement surrounding a new FPSO for ENI, rival FPSO services provider BW Offshore announced today a similar Letter of Award from Premier Oil for an FPSO based in the UK North Sea.

Located in the central UK North Sea, this new FPSO will initially tie in to 14 producing and 8 water injection wells at the Catcher Oil Field, operated by Premier.

BW Offshore notes their scope of work includes the delivery of the FPSO, mooring system, installation and operation of the unit throughout an initial firm 7-year charter period, with extension options. The FPSO will have a processing capacity of 60,000 bopd and a storage capacity of 650,000 bbl.

Unlike ENI’s West Africa-based FPSO which will involve converting an existing tanker, BW Offshore will build this new vessel’s hull from the ground-up in Japan and then complete the topsides integration in Singapore.

Development drilling at the Catcher Field will commence in 2015 and first oil is planned for mid-2017.  Total planned expenditures for the field are in excess of $2.2 billion and the field life is predicted to be 10 years.  According to Premier Oil, gross reserves under the initial development scheme are 92 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The LOA will be converted into a final contract subject to final partner sanction and Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) approval, expected to be completed during Q2 2014. The field is owned by Premier Oil (50%, operator), Cairn Energy (30%) and MOL (20%).

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