TechnipFMC, the US oil and gas services company based in Houston, was awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract by UK major Shell plc for the Jackdaw gas development in the UK North Sea to help offset rising LNG imports.
The company said the contract, whose value was not disclosed, covered pipelay for a 30 kilometres tieback from the new Jackdaw platform to Shell’s Shearwater platform, as well as an associated riser, spool-pieces, subsea structures and umbilicals.
The tieback will use pipe-in-pipe technology, which is designed for high-pressure, high-temperature usage.
“We’re excited to embark on this significant project together in the UK North Sea,” said Jonathan Landes, President, of Subsea at TechnipFMC.
“Our strong technical record and our ability to design, engineer, construct and install were key to our success in winning this award,” stated Landes.
Shell in the UK took the final investment decision in July 2022 to develop the Jackdaw gas field following regulatory approvals granted earlier in the year as European countries tried to underpin their domestic supplies hit by the Russian war in Ukraine that led to sanctions.
Development plan
The Jackdaw field is located about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Aberdeen, Scotland, and is adjacent to the UK-Norway median line.
The field is 100 percent owned and operated by an affiliate of Shell UK which became part of the Shell group of companies in 2016 after BG Group was taken over.
The Jackdaw development consists of a new Wellhead Platform (WHP), four production wells and the 30km pipeline from the Jackdaw WHP to the Shearwater gas hub.
Peak production from the field is estimated at 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Shell said that the UK North Sea remained one of Shell’s core Upstream positions, attracting capital to high margin hydrocarbon projects that can be resilient to commodity price cycles.
The gas from the Jackdaw field will come ashore at the St Fergus gas terminal in Scotland.
The project is expected to come on stream by 2025 and at peak production rates could represent over 6 percent of projected UK North Sea gas production in the middle of this decade.
Shell has said that the Jackdaw gas field was part the company’s broader intent to invest up to £25 billion ($30Bln) in the UK energy system in the next decade.
The company added at the time that the St Fergus terminal that will handle the Jackdaw gas will also be part of the development of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage project, which will aim to sequester carbon dioxide from industrial clusters in Scotland, the UK and northern Europe.
