Western Isles FPSO en route to North Sea

A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for Dana Petroleum’s Western Isles development in the UK is on its way from China to the North Sea. 

Chinese shipbuilder Cosco reported on Friday that its subsidiary Cosco Nantong has delivered an FPSO vessel of 55,942 dwt to its European buyer.

According to its statement, the delivery documents for the cylindrical unit with a diameter of 84 meters were signed between Cosco Nantong and the buyer in February 2017.

The Chinese company did not reveal the identity of its buyer in the delivery statement. However, the company was known to be working on delivering a cylindrical FPSO unit for Dana Petroleum’s Western Isles. The unit was originally scheduled for delivery in 2Q 2015 but experienced delays due to changes in technical requirements for the FPSO.

The FPSO of Sevan Marine’s cylindrical design was launched by Cosco in Qidong earlier in February with expectations to tow it to the North Sea soon after the launch.

Therefore, Offshore Energy Today reached out to Dana seeking confirmation that the unit delivered is indeed its Western Isles-bound FPSO.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed that the Western Isles FPSO is now on its way to the North Sea to a European holding location. It left the Chinese shipyard last Saturday, February 25 loaded onto the giant semi-submersible heavy lift vessel, the Xin Guang Hua.

The Dana-operated Western Isles Project will develop two discovered oil fields called Harris and Barra in the Northern North Sea, 160km east of the Shetlands and 12km west of Tern field. It involves a subsea development of at least five production and four water injection wells plus two exploration wells tied back to a new build FPSO with oil export using shuttle tankers.

Dana is now working to bring the development online in 2017.

Offshore Energy Today Staff