Forties pipeline back online following December outage

Ineos has confirmed that the Forties Pipeline System, which carries the North Sea oil and gas to shore, is now fully operational, following a controlled shutdown over a hairline crack. 

All restrictions on the flow of oil and gas from platforms feeding into the pipeline system have been lifted since last week.

Ineos, the operator of the pipeline system, said on Saturday, December 30, 2017, that virtually all platforms were online.

The Ineos facility at Kinneil has restarted and all products are in specification.

Force Majeure, declared on December 13, has been lifted. The loading of crude oil from Hound Point was forecast to re-start during last weekend.

One of the offshore platforms that were shut down due to the Forties closure was Chevron’s Erskine. Serica, Chevron’s partner at the Erskine field on Wednesday confirmed the Erskine field had resumed production following the successful repair of the Forties Pipeline System.

“Erskine was shut in on 11 December 2017 and during the last few days, production has gradually been restarted at increasing rates with production currently around 2,000 boe per day net to Serica,” Serica said.

 

Offshore Energy Today Staff