Total Celebrate Dutch North Sea Oil & Gas Milestone
By John Gauldie
At an April event in The Hague, Total E&P’s Dutch affiliate celebrated its 50th anniversary and officially inaugurated its most recent Dutch North Sea oil & gas development, K4-Z. Despite the gas field’s moderate size, successfully developing K4-Z was a major challenge for operator Total E&P Nederland, demonstrating not only a “lean and mean budget and aggressive development schedule”, but also new technology and an impeccable safety record.
Following start-up last year, the field has increased Total E&P Nederland’s production by approximately 10 percent and promises 12 years of continuous production. The company expects K4-Z to be followed by many more new developments emerging from the extensive 3D seismic campaign conducted in 2012 and exploratory drilling scheduled for 2015.
Potential for Southern North Sea Offshore Developments
Hosted by Total E&P Nederland Managing Director Henri-Max Ndong-Nzue, Total’s Senior VP North Europe Patrice de Viviès joined the French Ambassador to the Netherlands Pierre Ménat and Director Energy Markets at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs Jos de Groot to celebrate the company’s 50 years of activity in Dutch North Sea oil & gas. The company noted that first production from the two K4-Z wells had confirmed expected reserves. The proven reservoir potential stands at 11,500 boe/d. The project is a 50/50 partnership with Dutch state investor EBN (Energie Beheer Nederland).
The field, discovered in 1974, illustrates the improving technology and market for developing small to moderate-sized offshore fields and stranded reservoirs located in shallow waters. K4-Z is part of the production licence K4a – the field lay dormant until the Dutch Government instated the marginal field policy, plus an accelerated depreciation measurement in 2010, rendering the development economically attractive.
Platform & Subsea Infrastructure Fabrication & Installation
Tie-in platform upgrade – Integration work on K5-A included the installation of two new hydraulic power units, a new produced water treatment package, a new chemical injection package, outfitting of a new electrical and instrumentation room, and a dedicated power supply from the K5-P platform. It also required the demolition of obsolete equipment to make room for new equipment and extensive integrity work was carried out on the mature facilities.- Hang-off module fabrication – HSM Offshore constructed the 48t hang-off module (HOM – pictured below) for the tie-in to K5-A – a concept successfully implemented in Total E&P Nederland’s earlier K5-CU project. The HOM contains a start-up gas heater and a transportable tanks access platform (TTAP) for K5-A.
- Well drilling – The Noble Al White rig drilled the production wells (pictured).
- Subsea equipment – FMC Technologies delivered the well head equipment, Xmas trees and subsea controls. They worked together with Total E&P to implement a new generation of Xmas trees specifically designed for shallow water application (JXT-3 generation).
- Protective frame – The specifically designed shallow water subsea production system (SPS) at the K4-Z location is installed in 36m of water, and is protected from extensive fishing activities in the area by a 140t frame.
- Umbilical – The SPS is controlled from K5-CC via an umbilical, containing LP/HP hydraulic lines, chemical injection lines and electrical cords.
- Pipelay – The Helix Express (contracted by Saipem) installed the 17km 6-inch fully-rated, insulated pipeline and umbilical, linking the SPS to the K5-A receiving platform. Saipem UK fabricated the pipeline, using a mobile spooling base in Hartlepool.
- Trenching – This project was the first time within the Total Group that a pipeline and umbilical have been laid in one trench. Another first is a new pipeline dry insulation system (capsulated PUR/HDPE). Implementation in shallow water conditions proved successful, and offers prospects for the Total Group’s challenging deep water developments.
- PLEM installation – The final offshore campaign took place to install a PLEM (pipeline end manifold) and hook up at both K5-A and K4-Z ends.
- Safety record – The K4-Z project achieved more than 1,000,000 man-hours from the beginning to the end of the project without any lost-time safety incidents.
Offshore Seismic Acquisition in Congested Waters
Total E&P Nederland has been engaged in the exploration and production of natural gas in the North Sea Continental Shelf since 1964. Today gas is produced from 22 platforms and 4 subsea installations, located between 80 and 150km northwest of Den Helder. Most platforms are unmanned and remotely operated; five of them have gas treatment facilities.
In 2012 Total E&P Nederland launched a major project to acquire 3D seismic data. The project faced a whole raft of technical challenges during the survey work. The waters where the survey took places rank among the most congested in the world, with four busy shipping lanes, strong currents, 25 offshore platforms, shallow waters (locally less than 25 m) in places, numerous shipwrecks, fisheries traffic and a number of shipping buoys which had to be temporarily removed to allow the survey vessels to pass.
