Maersk Oil Produces First Oil from Dumbarton Field

Maersk Oil

Maersk Oil North Sea UK Limited has produced first oil from its Dumbarton Development, a re-development of the Donan Field, located in blocks 15/20a and 15/20b in the UK sector of the North Sea in 140 meters of water, 225 kilometers north east of Aberdeen, Scotland. Dumbarton is operated by Maersk Oil (70%) with partner Noble Energy (30%).

Commenting, Aberdeen-based Managing Director Michael Engell-Jensen said, "We are delighted to have achieved the significant milestone of first oil from Dumbarton, which is a key part of our growth strategy. It is only just over a year since Maersk Oil entered the UK market and I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and hard work in delivering this project."

Development drilling on Dumbarton was completed in July 2006 with five horizontal producers and one deviated produced water injection well, and these are now tied back to the Global Producer III, (GP3) a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility. The GP3 had been operating on the Leadon Field, but has since undergone a major upgrade in the A&P ship yard, and McNulty's on Tyneside. £100million topsides refit and modifications were required as the crude oil and condensate from Dumbarton is much lighter and has a higher gas content than the Leadon oil.

The Dumbarton project is a redevelopment of the abandoned Donan Paleocene oilfield, originally operated by BP and partners during 1993-1997, using the vessel Seillean, a SWOPS development (Single Well Oil Production System). The field produced 15 million barrels of oil until it was abandoned in 1998.

Maersk Oil acquired Dumbarton as part of the Kerr-McGee acquisition in November 2005. It was the first new project to be sanctioned by Maersk Oil following the acquisition. The wells consist of five horizontal producers and one water re-injection, and in total over 90,600ft was drilled, equating to around 17.3 miles.

GP3 was built in 1999, and has length of 217m, and a gross tonnage of 54,500 tonnes. It has a storage capacity of some 500,000 barrels, and a separation capacity of around 100,000 barrels of oil per day and 200,000 barrels of water per day.

It relocated from the Leadon Field in early July 2006 and went into dry dock at A&P Shipyard in Tyneside, and subsequently to McNulty's, for its upgrade.

Topsides modifications included: modifying 35 existing systems, recoating the hull, 170,000 engineering hours, 25 vendors, 5kms of large bore piping, 25km of cables and over 600,000 construction man hours.


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