The UK offshore regulator has extended the licence covering Dana Petroleum’s proposed Platypus gas development in the southern North Sea by one year, giving the Aberdeen-based operator more time to get the project started, writes Rob Watts.
According to the Oil & Gas Authority’s (OGA) website, the second term of the licence covering Platypus — P1242 — is now due to end on 31 July 2020.
The end of the second term was previously 31 July 2019.
Martin Rowe, managing director of field partner Zennor Petroleum, also confirmed the OGA had granted an extension of the licence.
“Yes, they have (granted the extension),” Rowe said in an interview with Upstream.
Dana declined to comment when contacted by Upstream. The OGA also declined to comment.
Dana Petroleum has also now approved a subsea tie-back to Perenco’s Cleeton platform as the development concept it will pursue at Platypus.
Speaking of the concept to develop the field using the Cleeton infrastructure, Rowe said: “That’s the plan and it’s a plan we support.”
Dana previously considered installing a small unmanned platform on the field and tying it back to the new Humber Gathering System (HGS) that is being built to exploit Premier Oil’s in-development Tolmount gas field, which Dana will part own with midstream company Kellas Midstream.
However, Upstream understands that Dana opted for the Cleeton option because spare capacity in the HGS system is not expected to be available for some time after Tolmount starts in late-2020.
According to an update for the UK supply chain issued by the OGA, tenders for the subsea pipeline and facilities engineering, procurement, construction and installation, as well as the supply of an umbilical and controls, are due to be issued around now.
The project is expected to be sanctioned in the second quarter next year before first gas in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The update also said one of the challenges Dana is facing is the delivery in June or July 2021 of a subsea production control umbilical for a 24-kilometre tie-back.
Platypus, located in blocks 48/1a and 48/1c, 18 kilometres north-west of the West Sole gas field and 15 kilometres south-west of the Babbage field, was discovered in 2010 and appraised with a horizontal well in 2012.
The discovery well encountered 221 feet of gas and the subsequent appraisal well tested at 27 million cubic feet per day.
The partners in the development are Dana on 59%, Calenergy Gas on 15%, Parkmead Group on 15% and Zennor Petroleum on 11%.