North Sea pipeline glitch nearly resolved

Published Oct 25, 2013 9:17 am ET

Production is due to ramp up from a number of fields in the North Sea after a restriction imposed by the operator of the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) gets eased.

BP, operator of CATS, initiated the restriction after off-specification pipeline gas from an unknown source was delivered to the CATS terminal at Teesside, in northeast England, according to a partner in the Huntington field.

Image: The Voyageur Spirit FPSO.

CATS is a "wet" natural gas transportation system, used to export from the E.ON E&P operated Huntington field and other UK North Sea fields to the Teesside terminal.

The restriction, initiated in mid-September, meant a reduction in production on those fields, including Huntington’s oil production.

Iona Energy said production was reduced to 40% of the Huntington floating production, storage and offloading vessel’s capacity, because it was unable to produce gas.

Earlier this week Noreco, which also has a share of Huntington production, said production from the unit, Sevan Marine's Voyageur Spirit, was averaging 12,000 boe/d.

Before the restriction, Huntington was producing at its full capacity of 30,000bbl/d and 27MMcf/d gas.

Further complicating the issue is that, due to the shutdown of other fields within the CATS system, Huntington has been restricted until such time as dry gas fields resume production, says BP, according to Iona, which will allow a blend of dry and wet gas streams.

BP has also indicated that constraints imposed on Huntington are likely to be lifted progressively from early November, as the drier gas fields come out of maintenance shutdowns.

The working interests in the Huntington field are E.ON E&P (25% operator), Premier Oil plc (40%), Norwegian Energy Company ASA (20%), and Iona (15%).

Image: The map shows the position of the CATS system in relation to the UK coastline.

CATS is a joint venture, operated by BP. CATS delivers about 12% of the UK's Gas demand through a 404km (223mi.) 36in.-diameter pipeline from a riser platform adjacent the BP-operated gas field in the central North Sea to the CATS processing terminal.

The CATS pipeline carries wet gas from the Everest, Lomond, Armada, Andrew, Banff, ETAP, J-Block, Jade, Erskine, Seymour, Montrose Arbroath, Maria, Rev, Gaupe and Huntington fields.

CATS can handle more than 48MMcu m (1.7Billion cu ft) of natural gas per day