UK: Subsea 7 confirms $75M North Sea Pipeline Bundle Contract for Apache North Sea

Subsea 7 Inc can confirm today that the US $75m North Sea pipeline bundle contract award it announced on 26th April 2010 was for Apache North Sea Ltd’s Bacchus Subsea Development Project in the UK sector of the North Sea.

The Subsea 7 work scope is to engineer, procure, fabricate, install and commission a 7km pipeline bundle* consisting of production, gas lift, methanol and heating pipelines and controls umbilical. The pipeline bundle system will be installed using the controlled depth tow methodology (CDTM*) connecting three new wells at the Bacchus Development in a subsea tie-back to the existing Forties Alpha platform. Procurement, engineering and project management has commenced, with offshore installation of the bundle scheduled for early 2011.

Engineering work will be carried out at Subsea 7’s Aberdeenshire office. Fabrication of the pipeline bundle will be carried out at the company’s North Sea bundle fabrication site in Wick, Northern Scotland.

Subsea 7’s Vice President for the UK Region, Steph McNeill, commented:

“Subsea 7 has a strong track record of successful bundle design, fabrication and installation in the North Sea since the 1980s. The bundle product allows efficiencies to be generated by neatly and efficiently incorporating all the structures, valve work, pipelines and control systems necessary to operate a field in one single product and we are pleased that Apache has chosen Subsea 7’s bundle solution for their North Sea development.

We look forward to playing our part in bringing the Bacchus development on-stream in a safe and timely manner.”

As part of the Bacchus field development project, Subsea 7 will also install a caisson riser system at the Forties Alpha platform and conduct pre-commissioning activities on the complete system. The Bacchus development is located approximately 6.7km East North East of Forties Alpha platform in Block 22/6 of the UK Sector of the North Sea.

*A pipeline bundle product integrates the required flow lines, water injection, gas lift and control systems necessary for a subsea development and assembles them within a steel carrier pipe. At each end of the pipeline, the structures, manifolds, incorporating equipment and valves, designed specifically to the requirements of the field, are attached. The fully tested system is then launched and transported to the location using the controlled depth tow method. Once installed no trenching or rock dumping is required.

The CDTM was pioneered and developed by Subsea 7 and it involves the transportation of pre-fabricated and fully tested pipelines, control lines and umbilicals in a bundle configuration suspended between two tow vessels. Once launched from the onshore site, the bundle is transported to its offshore location at a controlled depth below the surface. On arrival at the field, the bundle is lowered to the seabed, manoeuvred into location and the carrier pipe is flooded to stabilise the bundle in its final position.

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Source: Subsea 7, July 2, 2010;