Malaysia’s Bumi Armada has informed that its Armada Kraken FPSO, operating on the Kraken field in the UK North Sea has completed the offloading of its first cargo on September 12, 2017.
The Kraken is a large heavy oil accumulation in the UK North Sea, located in the East Shetland basin, to the west of the North Viking Graben, approximately 125 km east of the Shetland Islands, operated by the UK oil company EnQuest.
The Armada Kraken FPSO arrived at the location in the UK North Sea on 13 February 2017 and completed its hook-up on February 15, 2017.
The FPSO then achieved first oil on June 28, 2017, four and a half months after its hook-up, which is, according to Bumi Armada, the fastest first oil delivery on an FPSO in the North Sea in the last ten years.
While road to the first oil might have been fast, not everything has developed according to plans.
Namely, late in August, EnQuest, the operator of the Kraken field, downgraded its full year oil production forecast amid topside commissioning delays with the Armada Kraken FPSO in the Kraken field, offshore the UK.
Enquest in August explained that the field had been producing below the expected levels due to technical issues with the FPSO topsides commissioning.
Whilst in Q3 2017, volumes are behind forecast as equipment is commissioned, we expect operational uptime to improve accordingly and to deliver plateau production of approximately 50,000 Bopd gross in H1 2018, the company said its August announcement.
Production for the first half of 2017 was 37,015 Boepd. Due to the “prolonged commissioning leading to lower than expected operational efficiency from the Kraken FPSO vessel”, production volumes have been lower than forecast and EnQuest’s overall average daily production for the full year 2017 is anticipated to be as per the first half 2017 production rate, plus or minus 10%.
Offshore Energy Today Staff