Puffin: Australian oil field remains shut-in on FPSO dispute.
Front Puffin FPSO row continues
The row over the Front Puffin floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) continues with Puffin Joint Venture and a Sea Production unit now accusing each other of contract breaches.
The Puffin Joint Venture claimed a termination notice has been issued to the FPSO operator given that reasonable steps have not been taken to rectify ‘certain material safety and operating breaches’.
Sea Production has denied the allegations and accused Puffin Joint Venture’s partner, AED, of ‘breach of material [contractual] obligations’.
The Front Puffin FPSO went on charter to AED on 5 June 2007 for an initial two year term and achieved first oil on 6 October 2007. On 15 September 2008, AED and field operator, East Puffin agreed with Puffin FPSO to extend the charter for a further year until 15 June 2010.
The Puffin field reservoir performance has been below expectations and the results of recent drilling are reported to have been mixed, according to Sea Production.
The Front Puffin FPSO has remained onsite at the Puffin field connected to the mooring and riser system ready to resume production operations as and when instructed to do so by the field operator, the vessel operator said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Puffin Joint Venture said it is exploring other options, but did not elaborate further on the details.
AED Oil has previously signed a letter of intent for a term charter on Modec Venture 1 FPSO. The time charter is for a fixed term of three years with two options for one-year extensions. The FPSO was intended for deployment in the Puffin Southeast field. Modec Venture 1 is said to be laid up in a shipyard in Southeast Asia, awaiting for instructions from the Puffin field operator.
Both AED and Sea Production could not be reached for further comments as at press time.
AED owns 40% of the Puffin oil project. East Puffin, a unit of China’s Sinopec, holds the remaining 60%.