Taqa: Harding platform to resume production next week

Taqa has shut down its Harding platform in the UK North Sea, and removed non-essential workers due to power issues and water leak.

In a statement sent on Monday to Offshore Energy Today, a Taqa spokesperson said the company had shut down the platform on Tuesday November 21, as a result of a main power generation problem.

“We then encountered a water leak on Thursday which resulted in a loss of accommodation services. As the welfare of the people on-board the installation is one of our main priorities, we took non-essential crew off the platform on Friday,” the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, main power generation on Harding has been restored, “however we have taken the decision to commence some future activities that required the platform to be shutdown.”

“We expect Harding to be in a position to restart production early next week on completion of these activities,” the spokesperson said,

The Harding platform is a jack-up production unit serving as a manned production facility for the Harding Field, in Block 9/23b, 320 kilometers North-East of Aberdeen in the Central North Sea.

Taqa has a 70% interest in the installation and is the operator. The other partner is Maersk who holds 30%. The Harding oil field covers an area of approximately 20 square kilometers. It has has 16 oil production wells, three water injection wells, one gas injection well and two aquifer lift wells.

Oil from Harding is exported via a 24-inch diameter oil export pipeline to submerged tanker loading system.