Maersk Oil Begins Culzean Drilling

Danish company Maersk Oil has started drilling of the first production well on the Culzean field off UK on Wednesday, September 29.

The well is the first of six production wells to be drilled on the high pressure/high temperature (HPHT) field, with continuous drilling activity planned over the next five years.

“This is an important milestone in ensuring that we can deliver Culzean on schedule, and with it 5% of UK gas demand in 2020/21. It’s great to have Maersk Drilling as a partner and together we are working to ensure a safe drilling programme on this critical project for Maersk and the UK,” said Gretchen Watkins, chief executive officer designate, Maersk Oil.

The Maersk Highlander rig is drilling the first production well through a wellhead platform (WHP) jacket and well access deck (WAD) which were installed on location at the field in the spring of 2016.

The 114 meters long Culzean wellhead platform jacket, built at Heerema’s Vlissingen yard, is fixed to the seabed by 12 skirt piles driven 45 meters deep.

When the three topsides are installed in 2018 and hooked up in 2019, three of the six production wells will be ready for first gas.

The construction of the wellhead topsides is ongoing in Singapore.

Maersk Drilling and Maersk Oil have jointly prepared the drilling on a digital ‘virtual well’, using a specialised drilling simulator at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.

To remind, earlier this month Subsea 7 informed that the work started on building the subsea structures for Culzean field.

Culzean is located about 242 kilometers (145 miles) east of Aberdeen in the UK sector of the Central North Sea. First gas is expected to be produced from Culzean in 2019.