Ukcs News

Bumi Armada's Armada Kraken FPSO, a production unit operating at EnQuest's Kraken offshore field in the UK North Sea, has increased operational performance following a shutdown in early June.As Offshore Engineer previously reported, the Armada Kraken FPSO was shut in in June following the failure of critical hydraulic submersible pump (HSP) transformers.The Kraken FPSO is deployed at Kraken field under a bareboat charter contract.During the first four months of 2023, the average net production from the Kraken field was 15,910 barrels of oil equivalent per day.On June 21, Bumi Armada said that production had resumed from the FPSO and was at around 60% of pre-shutdown levels.In an update on Thursday…

Scotland's new First Minister Humza Yousaf and Just Transition Secretary Màiri McAllan this week visited Port of Aberdeen's £400 million South Harbour expansion.According to Port of Aberdeen, the duo heard firsthand how the port "supports Scotland's Just Transition and creates new opportunities in energy, trade, decarbonization, and tourism."Senior leaders from the port, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Energy Transition Zone and Opportunity North East met with Yousaf and McAllan to discuss the economic opportunities and challenges facing the region's key industries…

U.S. and Canadian refiners have turned to North Sea "Forties" crude oil for the first time in seven years in the latest sign of changing global oil flows from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 2.6 million barrels of the crude are set to arrive at U.S. East Coast ports since February, according to Customs data on Refinitiv Eikon. Some of the oil is likely headed to Canada via pipeline. The light, low-sulfur Forties crudes are blended with others to replace Russian crudes that have been barred from the U.S. and Canada. Prior to the ban, about 50% of all crude from Russian ports that landed in the U.S. went to East Coast refineries, the customs data showed. The tanker Sea Turtle in February discharged 770,000 barrels of Forties and Forties blend crudes in Maine, destined for Suncor Energy.

Marine services provider James Fisher Subtech (JF Subtech),  part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has signed a charter agreement with Østensjø Rederi AS for the exclusive use of its inspection, repair, and maintenance (IRM) and construction vessel, Edda Savanah.JF Subtech will start using the vessel in April 2023 for work in the North and Irish Seas on IRM projects for JF Subtech’s customers, utilizing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and multiple diving methods."The charter comes as the UK’s offshore energy industry faces supply chain crunches…

Offshore vessel operator Wagenborg Offshore said Tuesday it had secured a long-term deal with an unnamed energy major for the deployment of a multi-purpose offshore vessel.According to Wagenborg, the vessel will support subsea activities and decommissioning works in the Southern North Sea.Wagenborg said that an existing young PX121 platform supply vessel would be converted into a multipurpose offshore vessel within 34 weeks at the shipyard Royal Niestern Sander in Delfzijl."During this period…

Rovco, a UK-based subsea robotics and survey firm, has signed a three-year charter with Glomar Offshoreof the multipurpose support vessel, Glomar Supporter.The company said the charter was part of its growth strategy within its site characterizing business unit, and market a significant expansion of the company’s offshore hydrographic, geophysical, and shallow geotechnical survey capabilities."Responding to high client demand amid a rapidly growing offshore wind market, Rovco…

Montrose Port Authority says the port is set to become the first Scottish port to provide shore power infrastructure to the energy sector.To enable shore power to offshore energy industry vessels, the port has partnered with with Plug Shore Power Ltd in a 50/50 joint venture. The partnership will see an initial investment of £1 million into the joint venture which will be named Plug Montrose Ltd."Global shipping accounted for 833 million tonnes of CO2 in 2021. Currently only two British ports are equipped with shore power.

The construction of the Penguins FPSO for Shell's namesake field in the UK North Sea has reportedly been completed in China.CGTN, the China Global Television Network website, on Thursday, shared a video of the completed Penguins FPSO, and said the 118-meter-tall cylindrical FPSO, constructed by the Chinese Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. company in Qingdao, had been delivered to "a British client."In January 2018, Shell made a decision to redevelop the Penguins field in the northern North Sea…

The UK Government has granted Port of Aberdeen more than £200,000 in funding to accelerate the port’s drive to Net Zero by 2040.The ‘Port Zero’ feasibility study, which is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 2 (CMDC2), will analyse future port power demands, assess low carbon energy sources for equipment (e.g., cranes, tugs, pilot boats) and quayside infrastructure, and develop a roadmap to decarbonise port operations.The study – which is being delivered in partnership with Energy Systems Catapult…

More than 60% of the Port of Aberdeen's £400 million South Harbour development is now operational, marking the project's penultimate construction milestone, the port said in a statement on Thursday.The handover from construction to operations for Dunnottar, Crathes, and Castlegate (East) Quays was completed this week. Castlegate (West) is scheduled to open in December 2022, and the remaining Balmoral Quay will be brought into service in Q2 2023, making Aberdeen the largest berthage port in Scotland…

Offshore installation and decommissioning contractor Allseas has removed the Ninian Northern jacket in the North Sea in a single lift, showcasing its new jacket lifting system installed aboard its giant Pioneering Spirit vessel.In what was the first deployment of the new jacket lifting technology, Pioneering Spirit removed CNR International’s Ninian Northern jacket from the northern North Sea and transported it intact to shore for recycling.Weighing in at 8100 tonnes, the first commercial lift with Pioneering Spirit’s Jacket lift system (JLS) is one of the heaviest offshore jackets lifts ever…

Oil and gas company Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Limited said Monday that owners of  Golden Eagle, Piper, and Claymore fields, located in the North Sea northeast of Aberdeen, have executed new agreements reaffirming their commitment to export produced oil to the Flotta Terminal until the end of field life in the 2030s."This commitment to support the longevity of the terminal underpins a variety of growth opportunities in the wider area, including renewed drilling and several third party tie-backs.

A fire broke out in a store room at the Petrojarl Foinaven, located at BP's Foinaven field, west of Shetland, on Saturday, prompting an evacuation of non-essential staff, BP has confirmed to Offshore Engineer."BP is working with [Petrojarl Foinaven] FPSO duty holder Altera Infrastructure after a fire was detected in a store room on board the vessel on Saturday," BP said in an email statement.According to BP, the incident was brought under control and, as a precaution, 30 non-essential personnel were safely transferred to nearby installations. In total, there were 80 people on board at the time of the incident."Five people were assessed for possible smoke inhalation but no further treatment was required.

Hundreds of climate change protesters blocked oil terminals across Britain on Friday with some supporters climbing on top of oil tankers as part of their campaign to force the government to end its reliance on fossil fuels.Extinction Rebellion, which caused days of traffic chaos in central London three years ago, and another group Just Stop Oil blocked refineries around London, Birmingham, and Southampton.Police in Essex, just east of London, said they were dealing with three incidents and six people had been arrested.The protests are part of planned demonstrations by Extinction Rebellion, whi

Aberdeen-based Balmoral Comtec, part of Balmoral, has agreed to invest a seven-figure sum to create an advanced composites manufacturing facility on the quayside at Scotland's Montrose Port where large-scale components for the offshore energy sector will be built. The investment is initially expected to create 30-40 new jobs.To house the new facility, Balmoral has leased almost 1700sqm of warehouse space from Montrose Port Authority and will install machinery and equipment required to build and maneuver the massive parts destined for the North Sea and other energy markets.Tom Hutchison…

UK-based offshore vessel owner North Star has said it has recently secured new Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel (ERRV) contracts totaling more than £100 million (around $133.7 million).Under the contracts, North Star said it would support new and existing clients in the UK Continental Shelf with its fast-response emergency fleet, purpose built to protect personnel working on offshore oil and gas platforms.

Norway's Equinor has confirmed to Offshore Engineer that it has signed an agreement with FPSO owner Altera Infrastructure that could see the Petrojarl Knarr FPSO redeployed at the long-stalled Rosebank project in the UK North Sea. The FPSO is currently producing oil from Shell's Knarr field, offshore Norway, where it has been since early 2015. In April 2020 Shell extended the Knarr contract to March 2022.The Rosebank field, apparently Petrojarl Knarr FPSO's next location, is located 130 km northwest of the Shetland Islands in 1115 m water depth…

British oil major BP has filed a decommissioning plan for the removal of the Petrojarl Foinaven FPSO and the recovery of associated mooring systems, the risers and dynamic umbilicals from the Foinaven Field, located 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Shetland in water depths of up to 600 meters.The FPSO and related equipment will be transferred onshore for re-use, recycling or disposal as appropriate. BP last year said that the Petrojarl Foinaven FPSO had to be taken off-station as it had reached end of its 25-year service life, operating in a harsh environment, and now the company has filed the removal plans with the UK authorities.The FPSO is owned by Petrojarl 4 DA (part of the Teekay Corporation group) and is currently chartered by BP under a bareboat charter party.

Offshore installation firm Allseas said Thursday its giant Pioneering Spirit vessel had delivered another payload of what is a busy 2021 lift campaign.Namely, the flagship catamaran has recently delivered the new module for CNOOC International’s Buzzard Phase II development in the North Sea’s Outer Moray Firth, east of Scotland.The 516-tonne unit was loaded onboard directly from the Worley Rosenberg fabrication facility in Stavanger, Norway, transported to the field, and subsequently…

Norwegian offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore has secured a one-year contract for its platform supply vessel Normand Flipper.Solstad Offshore said that the contract, starting in December 2021, is for work in the UK North Sea. It did not say who the client was.The 2003-built Normand Flipper was mentioned on OEDigital.com in February 2020, when Solstad Premier Oil chartered the PSV to support its Tolmount field operations in the UK sector of the North Sea.Also, Solstad Offshore said Friday it had Sold its  AHTS Far Scout…

Dutch seabed survey services firm Fugro has won a subsea inspection contract with the oil and gas company Neptune Energy at the Cygnus gas field in the UK North Sea.As part of the contract, Fugro will employ its specialized survey technology to inspect the subsea infrastructure, including pipelines and structures, and to undertake survey activities in advance of future drilling campaigns on the Cygnus field. It will use the Atlantis Dweller vessel as part of the operations."Traditionally…

Norwegian offshore support vessel firm Solstad Offshore has secured a term contract for the platform supply vessel Far Symphony in the UK North Sea.The contract is with the UKCS-focused oil and gas company Ithaca Energy.Under the charter, the platform supplier, equipped with DP 2 from Kongsberg, will be supporting Ithaca’s UK North Sea operations for a period of one year firm, with further options up to one year. Solstad did not share the financial details.The contract for the 2003-built, Ulstein-designed PSV will begin during this month.

FPSO specialist Bluewater has secured a contract extension for its Bleo Holm FPSO with Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Limited and its JV Partner RockRose Energy.The FPSO, deployed in the UK, will see the contract extended until December 31, 2024. Repsol Sinopec will have further options to extend the charter.The Bleo Holm FPSO is located in UKCS Block 13/28a on the Blake and Ross Fields, 72 miles northeast of Aberdeen, since 1999.José Luis Muñoz, Repsol Sinopec CEO said: "I am very pleased that this contract has been extended.