Parkmead, Faroe in talks for joint FPSO use in North Sea

Parkmead and Faroe Petroleum are in talks to jointly develop their respective discoveries in the UK North Sea using an FPSO unit.

According to Atlantic Petroleum a partner in the Parkmead-run Perth and Dolphin discoveries, Faroe Petroleum, operator of Lowlander discovery, and Parkmead have initiated joint studies to determine the feasibility of a joint Perth/Dolphin/Lowlander development.

The evaluation phase, under which the discoveries would be developed sharing the same production facilities, is expected to be complete by year end 2014.

Atlantic Petroleum reveals that the two operators have agreed the commercial and ownership framework and a Heads of Agreement for the Joint Development of the fields signed, which covers equity alignment or “Unitisation” process, budget and management of the joint near term work programme, and plans for securing finance for the project.

FPSO proposed

Information on the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) reveals that the production facility for the development would come in the form of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, which will be designed for sour oil service, to be able to produce the oil with high sulphur levels as found in the Perth field.

Faroe Petroleum has said that Perth and Lowlander have been fully appraised, with a combined total of nine wells drilled on the fields. Together the fields are estimated to contain Stock Tank Oil In Place of 270 million barrels, with 62 million barrels of oil estimated to be recoverable, of which 22 million barrels is attributable to Lowlander.

Also, when it comes to the proposed FPSO solution, there is the potential that the unit could serve as a hub for a number of other analogous accumulations already discovered in the area.

First production from the joint development is slated for the late 2019.