Oil major Chevron has been forced to suspend production at its Alba Northern platform in the UK North Sea due to a power outage.
Chevron North Sea confirmed to Offshore Energy Today on Friday it has partially restored power and is working to restore full power at its Alba Northern platform following a weather-related power outage.
The company’s spokesperson said that all welfare services on board the platform are fully functioning, including Wi-Fi. The platform has back-up generator capacity. As a precautionary measure production has been shut in and secured. All personnel on board are safe and well.
The spokesperson also added that there are scheduled crew change flights on Saturday, March 3, but these are dependent on weather conditions.
Chevron-operated Alba field lies about 130 miles (210 km) northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the U.K. Central North Sea, in water depths of approximately 453 feet (138 m).
Discovered in 1984, first oil from the field was achieved in January 1994.
The field facilities include a fixed steel platform, the Alba Northern Platform, and a floating storage unit (FSU), the first to be purpose-built for the UK sector of the North Sea. The field was further developed in 2001 through the addition of the Alba Extreme South subsea production center.
Alba crude oil is offloaded from the stern of the FSU to a shuttle tanker approximately once per month before being transported to refineries in northwest Europe.
Alba is operated by Chevron North Sea (23.37 percent) with Statoil (17 percent), Mitsui E&P (13.3 percent), Centrica Resources (12.65 percent), Enquest Production (6.80 percent), EQ Petroleum Sabah Limited (1.20 percent) and Endeavour Energy (25.68 percent) holding non-operated working interests in the field.
Offshore Energy Today Staff