The Premier-operated Catcher project, located in the UK Central North Sea, is progressing under budget and is scheduled to deliver first oil in the second half of 2017.
The 2016 saw the completion of the installation of the Catcher subsea equipment and all topsides units lifted onto the FPSO.
Located 180 kilometres east of Aberdeen, the Catcher project includes the development of three main oil and gas fields, Catcher, Varadero and Burgman.
The sanctioned development entails 20 subsea wells on the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields which will be tied back to a leased FPSO, the BW Catcher. The BW Offshore charter period of the contract is 7 years, with extension options of up to 18 years. Based on a field life of 10 years, the contract value is USD 2.3 billion including FPSO charter rate and opex.
The Catcher area, is expected to produce 96 million barrels of oil equivalent with a peak production rate of around 50,000 barrels of oil per day. The oil will be offloaded by tankers while the gas will be exported through the SEGAL facilities.
BW Catcher has an oil storage capacity of 650,000 barrels, with a processing capacity of 60,000 barrels per day.
It has a design life of 20 years without dry docking and will be moored using a submerged turret production at an average water depth of 90 meters.