BP suspends production from Foinaven fields

BP has suspended production from its Foinaven fields, west of Shetland, as preparations begin to remove the Petrojarl Foinaven floating, production, storage, offload (FPSO) vessel from operation.

The FPSO, commissioned in 1996 and on location in the Foinaven area since 1997, is approaching the end of its 25-year design life. Work had been under way to consider options to extend the life of the vessel out to 2025. However, BP has concluded that, due to its age and the demands of operating west of Shetland, even with material further investment the Petrojarl Foinaven is not the right vehicle to recover the remaining resources from the Foinaven fields.

The Foinaven field is currently shutdown in preparation for a planned turnaround to deliver maintenance and safety critical activities. BP will now work closely with the FPSO duty holder Altera Infrastructure to ready the vessel for its safe removal, while preserving subsea equipment for potential future use. The FPSO is expected to be taken off station and handed back to vessel owner Teekay Corporation in 2022.

BP and field partners have begun evaluating options to develop the estimated remaining resources of up to a possible 200mn barrels from the Foinaven field and surrounding area in the safest, most efficient and sustainable way possible.

The Foinaven area comprises the Foinaven and Foinaven East fields, located 160 km west of Shetland in water depths of up to 600 metres. BP operates both fields with a 72% interest in Foinaven and 43% in Foinaven East. RockRose Energy holds a 28% non-operated interest in Foinaven and 47% in Foinaven East. DNO holds a 10% non-operated interest in the Foinaven East field.

To date, some 390mn barrels of oil have been recovered from the Foinaven area. In 2020 average gross production from Foinaven was approximately 12,000 boe/d.

Petrojarl Foinaven and shuttle tanker
Photo: BP