First oil flows at Dana Petroleum’s Western Isles Project

Dana Petroleum has reported that the first production well has now been successfully completed and flow tested and a further three wells have been drilled and cased to surface casing depth in the Western Isles Development Project.

All four subsea christmas trees have also been installed on the seabed. The work is being undertaken by the drilling rig Ocean Nomad which has been leased from Diamond Offshore.

Hugh McClure, director of capital development projects, said: “The first flow on Western Isles is an important milestone for both the project and Dana as a company.”

The Western Isles Development Project (Dana 77% and CIECO 23%) will develop two oil fields called Harris and Barra in the Northern North Sea, 160km east of the Shetlands and 12km west of Tern field. It involves a subsea development of at least five production and four water injection wells tied back to a new build floating production, storage and offloading vessel with oil export using shuttle tankers.

Following the FPSO keel laying ceremony in May 2013, top hole drilling began on the North Drill Centre in August 2013 and was completed within 67 days using the Ocean Nomad semi-submersible rig, leased from Diamond Offshore. A total of four subsea trees have now been successfully installed on the seabed. The gas export pipeline will be installed in summer 2014 and FPSO installation at a later date.