Statoil: Corrib gas output issues still unresolved

Gas production issues at Shell’s Corrib gas field offshore Ireland are now expected to be resolved on October 5, Statoil, a partner in the field has said.

In an update on Monday, the Norwegian oil company said the production remained reduced by 9.9 million cubic meters per day. The company did not say why the full output resumption was delayed.

To remind, Statoil had last week said production issues would be resolved on October 1, but this has not happened.

As previously reported, gas production has been cut since September 22, after technical issue arose when a quantity of unodorized gas from the Corrib field entered the Gas Networks Ireland’s network.

In a conversation on Friday, a Shell spokesperson told Offshore Energy Today that the GNI had on the same day when the issue was identified issued an advisory to their gas customers to switch off the gas meters as a precautionary measure because the unodorized gas was in the network.

The spokesperson said the customers had been required to switch off gas meters from a safety perspective, because in case of a leak in the household they wouldn’t be able to smell it.

Gas in the GNI network was back flowed to Corrib where it was disposed of in a safe and controlled manner through flaring, the spokesperson explained, and GNI was eventually able to advise customers that  they could switch the gas back on again, but from another source, not Corrib.

Located some 83 kilometers off the northwest coast of County Mayo, the medium sized Corrib gas field was developed as a subsea tie-back facility, connected by a pipeline to an onshore processing terminal. Production from the Corrib gas field started in late December 2015.

The gas from the field is transported to the Bellanaboy Bridge Gas Terminal in north-west Mayo through a 20 inch pipeline. It is then processed at Bellanaboy before it is transferred into the Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) network, which delivers it to Irish gas consumers.

The Corrib Gas Partners are Shell E&P Ireland Limited (45% – operator), Statoil Exploration (Ireland) Limited (36.5%) and Vermilion Energy (18.5%).

Earlier this year, Shell announced an agreement to sell its shares in Shell E&P Ireland Limited, that holds 45% interest in the Corrib gas venture, to a subsidiary of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for up to $1.23 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018.

Offshore Energy Today Staff