Fjords Processing bags Shell contract

Norway’s Fjords Processing has won a contract with Shell UK for Risk-Based Approach (RBA) environmental impact studies for produced water discharges on eight fields in the UK North Sea.

Fjords Processing said on Thursday that the studies would be done on the Nelson, Gannet, Shearwater, Leman, Brent C and Pierce fields this year and the Lomond and Everest streams in coming years.

Glen McLellan, the Orkney-based UK general manager at Fjords Processing, said: “This contract underlines our market leadership for RBA studies in the UK sector of the North Sea. Across our wellstream operations, we have shaped ourselves to enable field operators to release precious production revenue in tough economic conditions through world-leading expertise, cost-focus and a passion for problem-solving.”

The company also said that, apart from ecotoxicology testing of discharges, it will carry out the provision of sampling guidance and dispatch kits as well as computer modeling of post-discharge environmental implications. Results are compiled into a detailed report for each discharge that is then logged with the regulators to ensure Shell complies with new guidance brought into force by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2014.

The ecotoxicology tests and computer modeling is carried out at Fjords’ research, development, and testing base at Flotta in Orkney.

Fjords said that by using its DREAM (Dose-related Risk and Effect Assessment Model) program, scientists can mimic site specific conditions, including weather and tidal data, to characterize the environmental risk of offshore discharges. This includes produced water, MEG (mono-ethylene glycol), mud discharges, and decommissioning sludge.