Total Starts Up New UK West of Shetland Fields
Total announced August 30 that it has started-up production from the Edradour and Glenlivet gas and condensate fields, in about 300 to 435 metres water depth, in the UK West of Shetland area close to the Laggan-Tormore fields that came on stream in February 2016 and outside the North Sea.
The Edradour and Glenlivet development will add production capacity of up to 56,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day (boe/d).
“We have completed this project ahead of schedule and 30% under the initial budget”, said Arnaud Breuillac, Total E&P president: “This development will contribute to our production growth in the North Sea.” The two-field development consists of a 35-km tie-back of three subsea wells to the existing Laggan-Tormore production system, which includes the 143-km pipeline and the onshore Shetland Gas Plant. Following treatment at the gas plant, the gas is exported to the UK mainland via the Shetland Island Regional Gas Export System (SIRGE) and FUKA pipeline, and will serve the UK market. Condensates are exported via the Sullom Voe Terminal.
Total operates Edradour & Glenlivet with a 60% interest, alongside two partners each with 20%: UK utility SSE, and Dong E&P of Denmark which is being sold to UK privately-owned Ineos.
The French oil and gas major had equity production of 158,000 boe/d in 2016 which principally comes from three major zones: the Alwyn/Dunbar area in the northern North Sea, the Elgin/Franklin area in the central North Sea, and the new Laggan-Tormore hub in the West of Shetland area. The latter two are principally gas production areas.
Under its $7.45bn acquisition of Denmark’s Maersk Oil announced last week, Total will get among other things Maersk’s 49.99% operating stake in the UK gas field development Culzean (due for start-up 2019) close to Total’s existing Elgin/Franklin area assets; here the French company is looking for synergy cost-savings. The French major signaled last week that Denmark will become its HQ for North Sea operations, implying the loss or redeployment of jobs currently at Total’s North Sea base in London.
Update as at August 30, 2.45pm GMT:
Total clarified to NGW that both Edradour and Glenlivet fields started up production late August "ahead of schedule" and that production capacity of Edradour/Glenlivet (at 100% equity) is 56,000 boe/d, while Laggan-Tormore capacity (also at 100%) is 90,000 boe/d.
It also cited CEO Patrick Pouyanne's remarks to Danish TV2 last week about the jobs situation arising from its planned takeover of Maersk Oil thus: "Here in Copenhagen, you have 200 people from Maersk Oil who are supporting the operations worldwide for all Maersk Oil Company. We want to keep these people, all of them. They will be part of our global support operations worldwide, but will be a competent centre here, which will cover, of course, all the conventional offshore of the North Sea. Esbjerg will be primarily dedicated to the Danish operations and, again, there are no planned staff cuts.”
However the Total CEO's remarks still do not address whether all, or if not how many, E&P jobs will be retained in the UK, Norway and Netherlands.
Mark Smedley