Ithaca Energy Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Ithaca Energy (UK) Limited, say that the contract for provision of a floating production facility and the letter of award for provision of a semisubmersible drilling rig have been awarded for the Athena development.

The Athena Field is situated in Block 14/18b in the Outer Moray Firth area of the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. Ithaca operates the field with a 22.5% interest. The other coventurers in the field are Dyas UK Ltd (47.5%), EWE Aktiengesellschaft AG (20%) and Zeus Petroleum Limited (10%).

The field will be developed using a floating production, storage and offloading ('FPSO') vessel, and a contract has been signed with BW Offshore Limited to provide the BW Carmen (to be renamed 'BW Athena'). The contract will have a minimum term of 3 years (extendable for up to 8 years) and includes modifying the vessel and deploying it to a fixed mooring at the Athena field. The vessel will be mobilised to the Athena field at the end of Q3 2011. Offloading of produced oil will be by tandem moored shuttle tankers.

Previously the field has been appraised and three of the suspended appraisal wells will be completed for production (using downhole pumps) along with one new production well and one new water injector. A letter of award has been signed with Applied Drilling Technology International ('ADTI') (a subsidiary of Transocean Ltd.) for provision of drilling management services and for the supply of the Sedco 704 semi-submersible drilling rig. The rig will be available from the end of 2010 and the drilling and completion programme is expected to last approximately 180 days.

Both the FPSO contract and drilling letter of award are subject to Field Development Plan approval which is expected within approximately 3 weeks.

Contracts for the subsea equipment (moorings, flowlines, controls, power cables, pumps and meters) will be placed over the coming weeks.

John Woods, Chief Developments Officer, commented, 'We are delighted to have awarded these two critical contracts for drilling and production at the Athena Field. We are committed to a robust development of the field and confident that our chosen suppliers will deliver the quality of service that will ensure timely and effective execution of the Athena project plan. Our coventurers have been very supportive in getting these contracts agreed to and awarded, at the same time as the Field Development Plan is in the final stages of approval'.

Tags: Ithaca Energy Inc.