Fairfield takes over Dunlin Alpha platform from AMEC

Fairfield Energy, the North Sea focused independent oil and gas company, has taken over Duty Holder responsibilities for its Dunlin Alpha platform.

The platform, which is located nearly 200 km north-east of the Shetland Isles, processes production from the main Dunlin field and the Osprey and Merlin subsea fields which are tried back to the platform.

The Duty Holder transition from AMEC to Fairfield, which came to effect at midnight on 31st March 2014, follows a period of extensive platform modifications and improvements to ensure many years of future production and it also comes on the back of UK decommissioning tax relief through post-tax securitisation.

Fairfield is focussed on the growth of its asset portfolio in the North Sea and making this change now, the company has in place the organisational structure, capabilities and capacity to accommodate growth in the North Sea.

Ian Sharp, Fairfield’s Chief Operating Officer based in Aberdeen said: “Moving to a position where we fulfil all operator responsibilities is a positive and logical progression for Fairfield Energy and demonstrates our commitment to the North Sea. Whilst we have been preparing for this transition over many months, we believe that taking this step is entirely consistent with the recently published Wood Review, which we welcome, and it positions us for any future opportunities that may present themselves as Sir Ian’s recommendations come in to play.”

Sharp added: “AMEC has played a fundamental role in the successful works completed to date to extend the life of Dunlin and we will continue to build upon the effective relationship, initially established in 2008, through two new contracts to serve our operator support and brownfield engineering and construction needs going forward. A huge amount of work was completed to ensure that all of the processes were in place to allow a seamless duty holder transfer, from rolling out new IT systems to presenting the updated safety case. I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work and support.”

Alan Johnstone, Managing Director of AMEC’s Brownfield and Asset Management Operations, said: “We look forward to further developing our relationship with Fairfield as we deliver the operator support and brownfield engineering and construction requirements. AMEC has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Fairfield through the Dunlin platform and is proud to continue to be involved in its future success.”

The Dunlin cluster covers the Dunlin and Dunlin South-west fields together with the Merlin and Osprey fields, in which Fairfield holds the majority 70 per cent stake and the Mitsubishi Corporation the balance of 30 per cent. The facilities in the cluster include the Dunlin A platform and subsea infrastructure for the Dunlin South-west, Merlin and Osprey fields.