Antrim Causeway Field to be subsea tie-back to Dunlin Alpha Platform
Antrim Energy Inc. , an international oil and gas exploration and production company, today announced the signing of a Heads of Terms (Agreement) with a subsidiary of Fairfield Energy Limited (Fairfield) for the provision of platform hosting services on the Dunlin Alpha Platform for its Causeway Development in the UK North Sea (Antrim 65.5%). It is planned for the Causeway Field to be developed using subsea production technology with a tie-back to the existing Dunlin Alpha Platform (Dunlin), which lies approximately 9 kilometres to the east of Causeway. The Dunlin production platform was installed in 1977 and is part of existing oil export infrastructure with a pipeline to the Cormorant Alpha Platform (Cormorant). Cormorant forms the starting point of the Brent Pipeline System for oil transport to the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland Islands.
The Agreement with Fairfield includes provision for engineering, procurement and installation of all platform facilities and services required to host the operation of the Causeway Field, processing of Causeway production and export of Causeway oil to Cormorant. The Agreement forms the commercial basis for more detailed agreements to be developed between Antrim and Fairfield covering the construction and tie-in scope of work and a fully termed transportation, processing and operating services agreement.
Antrim has also signed a contract with Fairfield for the front-end engineering design (FEED) study of the modifications required on Dunlin for the Causeway tie-in. This FEED study, which is due for completion in early 2009, will establish the detailed scope of work, costs and schedule for the platform and riser modification work.
These two agreements are consistent with Antrim's plans to submit a Field Development Plan (FDP) to the UK Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) later this year, with project approval expected by mid-2009 and first oil from Phase 1 of the development by mid-2010.
Stephen Greer, President and CEO of Antrim, commented, "These agreements with Fairfield are a major step towards the development of Causeway and the realization of Antrim's first oil from the UK North Sea."
