AMEC Secures HUC Contract for GDF SUEZ E&P UK’s Cygnus Field

AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, has been awarded the hook up and commissioning (HUC) support contract for GDF SUEZ E&P UK Ltd’s Cygnus gas field development, the UK Southern North Sea’s largest gas discovery in the last 25 years.

The HUC support contract for the four Cygnus platforms follows on from the FEED (front end engineering design) and detail design work executed by AMEC from its London offices. This continued work on the Cygnus development further cements the positive working relationship between AMEC and GDF SUEZ and its partners, Centrica and Bayerngas.

This latest phase, with first gas scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2015, will maintain 140 jobs at peak and will be delivered by AMEC’s Aberdeen offshore North Sea team, including qedi, AMEC’s completions and commissioning specialists. The work will be part of a series of major platform installations, including the full spectrum of commissioning and completions support, reflecting the deepening of AMEC’s relationship with GDF SUEZ E&P UK. It is another example of AMEC delivering a project through its various phases of FEED, detail design and engineering to hook up and commissioning.

“We are delighted to be able to support GDF SUEZ E&P UK deliver this strategically important development,” said Alan Johnstone, AMEC’s Managing Director brownfield and asset management, Europe. “This latest award recognises AMEC’s ability to deliver large scale and complex production facilities safely to our customers.”

Cygnus gas production is due to meet the demand for nearly one and a half million UK homes at peak production, accounting for around five per cent of the UK’s gas production by 2016. Located on the Dogger Bank in the Southern North Sea, the field is being developed through one main hub, Cygnus Alpha, a permanently manned hub that consists of three bridge-linked platforms providing drilling, accommodation, processing, and export. A second well head platform, the Cygnus Bravo platform, will be located in the west of the field approximately 7 kilometres from the Alpha complex. A new 51-kilometre gas export pipeline will link the field to the Esmond Transportation System (ETS) pipeline export which terminates on the UK mainland at the Bacton onshore terminal.

Press Release, November 13, 2013; Image: GDF