Premier Oil's Catcher development is on track for first oil by the end of the year with the project's floating production vessel now moored in field. 

The BW Catcher vessel, built at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, and owned and operated by BW Offshore, is expected to produce 96 MMboe, via 20 subsea wells (14 producers and eight water injectors) on the Catcher, Varadero, and Burgman fields. 

The BW Catcher arrived at the Catcher field at 11pm on Wednesday, 18 October. The hook up of the submerged turret production (STP) buoy mooring system was completed on the 19 October with the vessel successfully completing a rotation test around the buoy on the 20 October. 

The final pull-in of the risers and umbilicals is now underway and commissioning activities have also commenced in parallel. 

Field ramp up will be over 3-4 month period with Catcher being the first field on line followed by Varadero and Burgman. Full field plateau production of 60,000 b/d will be achieved at this time, says Premier Oil.

The BW Catcher FPSO is on hire under a seven-year fixed term contract, with extension options of up to 18 years. Based on a 10-year field life, the contract value is US$2.3 billion, including FPSO charter rate and opex.

BW Catcher has an oil storage capacity of 650,000 bbl and a processing capacity of 60,000 b/d.