Oil and gas company Dana Petroleum (
www.dana-petroleum.com) — a subsidiary of the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) — announced ‘first oil’ from its Western Isles development in the Northern North Sea on 15 November and is now producing oil from two fields 160km east of the Shetlands.
With an investment of about $2 billion by the project partners (Dana 77%, Cicero 23%), Western Isles is Dana’s largest ever project and is expected to produce up to 44,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day when in full production.
Dana chief executive Roy Elliot said: “The safe start-up of Western Isles is a proud moment and a great achievement for Dana and KNOC — and it demonstrates our on-going commitment to the North Sea.”
Brenda Wyllie, Northern North Sea manager at the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), said: “The ‘first oil’ milestone from the Western Isles development confirms the remaining potential of the UK Continental Shelf. The OGA welcomes investment in a mature area of the North Sea and looks forward to more of these developments coming on stream.”
The Western Isles development consists of production and water injection wells connected to a new-build FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) vessel served by shuttle tankers.
Built in the Cosco shipyard in China and fitted out at Keppel’s Verolme yard, the FPSO weighs over 28,000 tonnes and can store 400,000 barrels of oil in its tanks.