Hurricane secures Lancaster FPSO

London-listed player to use Bluewater’s Aoka Mizu for the early production phase of the North Sea development. The London-listed company said on Monday that it signed a deal with Bluewater Energy Services for the use of the Aoka Mizu FPSO for the early production system (EPS) phase of the development. Hurricane will have the right to extend the contract for up to ten years, it said.

Under the agreement, signed on board the Aoka Mizu at the Remontowa yard in Gdansk, Poland, Bluewater granted Hurricane an exclusive right to enter into fully termed agreements until November 2017. “It is the parties’ intention to enter into fully-termed agreements prior to Hurricane’s expected sanction date in mid-2017,”Hurricane said. Following the deal, Hurricane and Bluewater have started a second phase FEED study which is expected to complete in early the second quarter of next year.

Hurricane holds a 100% interest in Lancaster.

This will allow us to maintain our desired first oil date of first half of 2019 and further demonstrate the potential of fractured basement reservoirs in the UK

“This will allow us to maintain our desired first oil date of first half of 2019 and further demonstrate the potential of fractured basement reservoirs in the UK,” Hurricane chief executive Robert Trice said.“As our current drilling campaign continues to assess the full regional potential of our acreage, this agreement is another important milestone in our efforts to move Lancaster towards production,” Trice said.

Bluewater chief executive Hugo Heerema added: “This very serious UK development shows the guts and insight a smaller oil company can assume, and therefore I am proud that Bluewater can be part of it through the deployment of its Aoka Mizu, a young and fit North Sea FPSO with an excellent track record.

“The dedication and will of both companies to work with each other has led to a realistic contract with understanding of each other’s needs and constraints, and that caters for low and high oil price scenarios.”

“Equally important, this shows that even in a low but improving oil price environment developments can be made economical,” Heerema said.