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As a LTH off course I am thrilled with the positive sentiment in the market the past days.
And I am very positive that first gas will flow soon.
But....what will the impact of the Southwark delay be, both in time and in money?
Southwark accounts for approx. 2/3 of the Phase 1 production volumes.
- Is the rig on full or reduced dayrates during the delays, both leg repairs and present scouring issues?
- What will be the total cost of the remedial work of the seabed (engineering, surveys, vessel hire and rock procurement) near Southwark?
- Is there insurance in place to cover for these delays, full or only out-of-pocket expenses?
I have been told by a good friend, who is much more knowledgable than I am on offshore investments and share prices, that even if Southwark does not come online for some time to come, the revenue of Elgood and Blythe alone will cover the investments made so far.
Thanks to a ridiculous high gasprice, off course.
Food for thoughts and hopefully some transparancy from the BoD on the actual cost overruns.
Have a nice day.
Good morning,
The situation offshore remains the same:
- WtW vessel Acta Orion is alongside Blythe and I assume that technicians are on the platform to support the back-gassing and start of gas production operations
- NHDeul is still on location near the Elgood wellhead and no rig-move activities are seen
- And Southwark is alone, no rock-dumping activities are seen
Have a nice day
Good morning,
Offshore it is still business as usual.
No rig-move activities at the NHDeul JU-rig
No rockdumping vessel at the Southwark location is seen by me yet.
And the WtW vessel Acta Orion is still at the Blythe platform.
In line with a recent RNS, we should see some more activities over the weekend or early next week.
Have a nice day.
In the meantime it is business as usual offshore:
- No rig-move activities yet at the NHDeul JU-rig
- I have not seen any rock-dumping vessels at Southwark so far
- And the WtW vessel Acta Orion is now back alongside Blythe after a short stint yesterday at Southwark
I assume that the Acta Orion scope is all in relation to the back-gassing work and the following start of production.
Have a nice day!
Thanks GG!
Today is the 28th February, the day in the last RNS that back-gassing will start.
And after all these years of waiting , this could very well be the first week with gas production and money coming in instead of out!
Good luck all!
WtW vessel Acta Orion moved to Southwark overnight and is now on location. I have not seen a rock-dumping vessel on the Southwark location yet. No activities at NHDeul.
Just another day offshore!
Weather outlook: reasonable and workable; marginal by Friday and improving over the weekend.
The "walk-to-work" vessel Acta Orion is back at work alongside Blythe this morning.
It is fair to assume that IOG and contractor technicians are on the platform for the final test and commissioning work before back-gassing and production starts next week.
The weather outlook for the next days: looks reasonable & workable, maybe a short period of marginal weather by Thursday .
Have a nice day!
T be honest I had not heard of a pre-installed rockbed for JU rigs, often rockdumping is done after arrival on site and lowering the legs. And then only when needed.
But this solution sounds good. Unfortunately rock-dumping vessels do not grow on trees, neither is the right quality and quantity of rock. Most rock-dumping vessels are occupied now in preparation of the wind-farm summer season installation work.
So there must have been quite a bit of planning and (commercial) communication before the right vessel and the right rock was found.
Have a nice day, it is raining cats & dogs here in Holland and a yellow wind warning is up for the day!
You do not need a full storm to stop lifting operations.
Onshore and as a rule of thumb lifting operations with tower / construction cranes cease at Beaufort 6 and over.
Offshore cranes are usually rated at a slightly higher windforce.
In all cases the effect of wind on the load can give variations Small and heavy lifts are easier to handle than large and light lifts.
So a delay in construction at the Bacton terminal caused by adverse weather and winds over force 6 does not come as a surprise to me. Safety first!!
That was a pretty bad couple of days (weather wise) and it is not over yet.
A train of depressions is coming in from the Atlantic this week, not as bad as Eugene, but windforce 5 with peaks to 7-8 beaufort prevail.
Rigmove & "walk-to-work" operations the next days: none & very limited in my opinion. The Waiting-On Weather game continues.
No marine activities at NHD and Blythe at present
The Acta Orion was at Southward briefly during the night (workable weather around midnight) and is now heading back to the Norfolk coast.
Have a good weekend.
But it does answer one the unknowns from yesterday: the work for Acta Orion & the IOG technicians on board is not yet completed!
Very briefly Drillspark, she was alongside during the night and now heading back to the coast.
Not surprising, there is pretty bad weather coming today on site.
Have a nice day, take care with the storm today!
Weather outlook for the next 5 days:
Rigmoves only start when a favourable weather window for the planned move + installion on site is available.
Waves affect JU rigs mora than wind, but wind only will affect accurate positioning near a platform
A brief period af maybe workable weather is forecasted for tomorrow PM, but imo too short for a move. The rest of the time : Bft 5-6, chance 7 at times.
I think that it will be untill next week Tuesday before the conditions are workable again.
Walk-to-work operations: a rule of thumb is that a vessel like Acta Orion should be able to work up to Bft 5
It is defenitely not the weather to start a rig-move.
Normand Subsea is in Peterhead, so I assume that her tasks were completed
Acta Orion is off the coast of Norfolk. Maybe as a precaution, walk-to-work operations in gale force 9 winds are normally not possible. Work completed or going for shelter briefly? Time will tell!
It's very quiet again offshore.
At the NHD site no rig-move preparations. At Southwark no vessels
And at Blythe both Acta Orion (walk-to-work support vessel) and Normand Subsea (subsea maintenance & support vessel) have left location.
Was this work part of the back-gassing and futher commissioning operations? Time and the next RNS will tell!
In a previous post I wrote that Normand Subsea could be working on the manifold / subsea tie-in to the main Thames export line. That was not correct, the tie-in is 25 km away from Blythe.
Working on the Emergency Shutdown Valve (ESV) is more likely
ESV's are installed in all export pipelines from all platforms to prevent gas flowing back to the platform in the event of an incident. During the Piper Alpha disaster the main fire and explosion was caused by gas flowing back to the platform after a first fire / explosion compromised and damaged on-board systems.
Since then all export pipelines are fitted out with ESV's which are normally located some distance ( a few hundred meters) away from the platforms.
Mole,
I read the last RNS differently. In my humble opinion "relocation" means getting the NHD back alongside the platform.
Relocating the complete platform is in my opinion not the issue and would involve a complete decommissioning operation.
Let's hope I am thinking along the correct route.
Scour can be very destructive. In the windfarm industry holes behind monopiles of 7 meter deep have been reported. Scour
is not always there, but once it starts, it will usually accelerate. Scour protection is normally done by dumping rocks around the structure ; this will prevent that the sand on the seabed is swept away by bottom currents.
Monopiles in windfarms are now usually installed / piled through a bed of scour protecting rock; possible because the lower end of the pile is open.
Sitting a JU rig on a bed of scour protecting rock is imho not feasable; the spudcand with a diameter of up to 10 meters at the lower end of the legs have to penetrate into the seabed before a stable condition is reached.
Quite a lot of fishing going around there! But as far as I can see nothing big or working on remedial work
There is no activity at the NHDeul location (rigmove back to Southwark) and at the Southwark site (seabed remedial work)
However at Blythe 2 workvessels are on site:
- Acta Orion is a "walk-to-work" vessel with accomodation, workplaces and a motion compensated gangway. She is alongside the unmanned Blythe platform
- Normand Subsea is a subsea installation / maintenance vessel and is a mile to the SE of Blythe (is that the manifold where the Blythe pipeline connects to the main export pipeline to Bacton?)
It is safe to assume that work is carried out offshore that relates to the bringing onstream of Blythe and Elwood.
Personnel on the platform and ROV on the seabed at the manifold.
I look forward to that RNS that confirms this.
Have a nice day.
It took a while, but today's RNS gives a lot of good information about the ongoing operations, both on- and offshore.
Maybe not what a lot of shareholders were hoping, but a clear timeline to first gas.
I am quite happy to wait a bit longer for a SP that reflects the true value of IOG
GG: spot on with your message and analysis why the NHD was relocated to the Elgood site!
I have been positive and supportive about IOG, it's BoD and tech teams, for the past years. And i still am very optimistic about the route forward and the possibilities of a SP around 50p.
But.... it would be nice to receive more information about the present state of operations:
- Bacton: silence
- Offshore drilling: NHDeul is at the Elwood location. Why? It is a single well subsea wellhead that was completed and tested months ago
Offshore: At the Southwark location a "walk-to-work" mainetnance vessel (Acta Orion) was alongside briefly, it is now at Blythe. A subsea survey vessel ( Geo Focus) is doing survey rounds around the platform, no other vessels around.
Seabed remedial work normally involves rock-dumping; no rock-dumping vessels seen yet!
It would be good when IOG /BoD gave all of of LTH and other investors a heads-up what is happening in the field and onshore at Bacton.