RWE Dea UK says that the contract for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a minimum facilities platform for the Breagh A Development has been awarded to Heerema Vlissingen B.V. (Heerema). This is the second contract this year to be awarded by RWE Dea UK to Heerema, following an award of an EPC contract in April for a minimum facilities platform for the Clipper South development.

For the Breagh A development, Heerema will construct the jacket, topsides and piles at their Vlissingen yard in the Netherlands with a planned delivery date of late July 2011. The jacket will be approximately 85 meters tall with a total weight including the piles of some 4,000 tonnes. The topsides will weigh approximately 1,400 tonnes.

The Breagh A field is located in UKCS block 42/13 of the southern North Sea in 62 meters water depth, approximately 100 kilometres to the east of Teesside. Gas will be exported via a 20" pipeline to be laid from the platform to the UK mainland.

In the Breagh gas field RWE Dea holds an aggregate 70 percent interest as operator (Sterling Resources (UK) Limited 30 %). The estimated resources make Breagh and the surrounding fields one of the largest natural gas discoveries still to be developed in the UK Southern North Sea. The gas field is a conventional Carboniferous reservoir and the expected reserves will make a significant contribution to the growth of RWE Dea's gas reserves. Further upside potential is expected in the surrounding exploration blocks.

The jacket, topsides and piles for the Clipper South development shall also be constructed in Heerema's yard in Vlissingen, with a planned delivery date of early July 2011. The jacket will be approximately 40 meters tall with a total weight (including the piles) of some 1160 tonnes. The topsides will weigh approximately 2000 tonnes.

The Clipper South field is located in UKCS blocks 48/19 and 48/20 of the southern North Sea in 23 meters water depth, approximately 169 kilometres to the east of the Theddlethorpe gas processing terminal. As operator RWE Dea holds a 50 percent interest, with the remaining 50 percent stake held by Fairfield Acer Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfield Energy plc). The Clipper South gas field lies in the Sole Pit basin within the Rotliegend tight-gas play fairway, and produced gas will be exported to the UK.

"The EPCs are a major milestone in bringing both fields into production. We are happy to award these contracts to such an experienced contractor as Heerema. We hope to achieve initial gas production of Clipper South during Q1 2012, with Breagh to follow during Q3 2012," said Ralf to Baben, Chief Operating Officer of RWE Dea AG.

Tags: Heerema Marine Contractors, RWE Dea