Approval to develop the field as a subsea tieback to the Heather Alpha platform with a first oil target of June, 2004, was recently granted by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The project consists of the installation of a 7-km pipeline bundle incorporating two 8-in production and 8-in water-injection flowline, one gas-lift flowline, one 3-in scale-squeeze flowline, and electro/hydraulic/control/service cables and tubing. The pipeline bundle will contain the multiple flowlines within a single carrier pipe.
The work scope includes the tie-in of the first five planned wells (three production and two water-injection) and installation of four flexible and one dynamic umbilical catenary riser between the bundle towhead and Heather platform. The Heather platform will be the host facility for the proposed tie-back which, in turn, will export the processed oil to Ninian through an existing 16-in oil-export pipeline. The work will also include the replacement of a section of the existing 16-in riser and Ninian oil-export pipeline.
Fabrication work will commence shortly at Subsea 7’s bundle fabrication site at Wick, Scotland
