UK: Subsea 7 Granted EPIC North Sea Contract Worth $135 Million

Subsea 7 Inc, one of the world’s leading subsea engineering and construction companies, announced today that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPIC) contract by BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd. for the Andrew Area Development Project in the UK sector of the North Sea. The contract is valued in excess of $135 million.

The Subsea 7 work scope is to engineer, procure, fabricate, install and commission a 28km pipeline bundle system consisting of production, gas lift and methanol pipelines. Also included is the installation of a 28km electro-hydraulic control umbilical, tie-ins of integrated subsea towhead structures, field testing and pre-commissioning works.

The pipeline bundle system will be installed using the controlled depth tow methodology (CDTM*) to tie-back BP’s Arundel and Kinnoull developments to the Andrew platform.

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

“We are extremely pleased to be awarded this major pipeline bundle project by BP, which builds upon our strong track record of successful bundle design, fabrication and installation. We look forward to helping bring on-stream the Andrew Area development in an efficient, timely and safe manner.”

The pipeline bundle system consists of 4 daisy chain pipeline bundles (totalling approx. 28km). It represents a step change in the Subsea 7 pipeline bundle tie-back range in that it will be the longest bundle Subsea 7 has produced and installed to date.

The pipeline bundle technology is unique to Subsea 7, the product allows efficiencies to be generated by neatly incorporating all the structures, valve work, pipelines and control systems necessary to operate a field in one single product. Subsea 7 has successfully produced 60 bundles in the last 30 years, including several BP projects, the most recent example being for its Valhall field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea in 2009.

Engineering has commenced in Subsea 7’s offices in Aberdeen. The offshore phase will commence in early 2011.

The Andrew development is located 230km North East of Aberdeen in blocks 16/27a & 16/28, Central North Sea. The water depth is between 100 and 120 metres.

Subsea 7 is one of the world’s leading subsea engineering and construction companies offering all the expertise and assets that make subsea, umbilical, riser and flowline (SURF) field development possible.

With a multi-national workforce in excess of 5,000 people worldwide, the company’s global offshore operations are supported out of Africa, Asia Pacific, Brazil, North America and the North Sea.. Subsea 7 has a fleet of industry leading, dynamically-positioned ships capable of reeled and flexible pipelay, subsea construction and saturation diving and a portfolio of pipeline fabrication and spoolbases worldwide.

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: Subsea7, June 11, 2010;