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EnQuest has confirmed that the crew of a North Sea platform that was evacuated yesterday are now being flown home.
All 115 crew members were down-manned from the Thistle Alpha installation on Monday after a “subsea structural inspection” and taken by helicopter to the nearby Dunlin platform.
The operator has now said the inspection related to a “support element on a redundant subsea storage tank”.
EnQuest has shut down production at the platform, which will remain the case until remediation action is taken.
Bob Davenport, managing director of North Sea operations at EnQuest, said: “The safety of our people is our absolute priority. Our offshore installation manager took proactive action to transfer everyone from the platform as a precaution following yesterday’s inspection.
“This was carried out safely and quickly, with plans then made for their onward travel home. Further inspection work will be conducted and the platform will remain shutdown until that has concluded and any necessary remedial action undertaken.
This is a structural issue on a jacket, possibly a node failure. However to abandon the wells, they would have to fix the jacket anyway. It would be almost impossible to abandon the wells without repairing the jacket. So, as you have to repair the jacket, why then would you not restart production as planned ? This will take some time to first design, then fabricate and install a fix, but there is no choice but to fix it. Maybe 90 to 180 days, depending on the problem.
Not only that but the planning and implementation of any structural repair at this time of year may be difficult especially where diving operations are concerned. DSV Vessels are not normally off the shelf. Enquest will probably be carrying out various modelling of the structural damage to ascertain whether it is safe to put personnel back on board and recommence operations or whether immediate repairs are required. This will be a binary bet at the moment. Given the risk, i would be out as the down side far outweighs the upside here.
For anyone not in the know Northern Producer (NP) production goes via Thistle so obviously going to be an issue if Thistle is Unmanned, likely NP also shutdown and not producing. Given that NP was a higher producer that's going to be hurting Enquest. For clarity not holding, not deramping.
I should add that I am sceptical that once all other relevant overheads and other costs are spread across the assets, that Thistle (or Heather or EP for that matter) could actually make break even on their own.
Your statement is partially correct. If the asset is removed permanently, it moves to decomm mode so the costs fall to near zero as its 99% BP account.
The revenue earned would be removed, but so would the cost of sales.
The “break even price” would improve on that basis
Out, nasty 7 point loss but live to see another day.
Something badly wrong here
Neil, “push up per barrel break even price”
Are you serious?
Are you seriously suggesting that Thistle would have a lower OPEX/barrel than Kittiwake, Magnus or Kraken for example?
If an old asset was removed, average OPEX/barrel would fall!!
.....and as Londoner often says "sh*t happens" and that applies whether you're Shell or BP too. I met a deep sea diver on a skiing holiday. I said it must be a dangerous occupation. He disagreed - he said that operating a rig is so expensive that at the first warning protocols come into play because every day's delay can run into millions. Obviously decommissioning is cheaper than a producing rig but lives keep the same value.
From Interims:
Planned well abandonments continue to be successfully executed in line with the Group's asset life extension strategy. Strong operational execution and cost control has allowed the Group to increase the 2019 abandonment project scope from five to nine wells while expecting to remain within the original budget.