Norway-based floating production company Sevan Marine has reported an agreement with Premier Oil and Gas Services Ltd. to keep operating the FPSO Sevan Voyageur at the North Sea oilfield Shelley, as the U.K. independent looks set to take over the field and the shares of the credit-crunched Oilexco North Sea Ltd.

“The alternative would have been that the Sevan Voyageur would have gone to land,” Sevan chief exec Jan Erik Tveteraas told Scandoil.com.

“(The FPSO Sevan Voyageur) will be there as long as it is profitable,” he said, adding that the deal looks set to replace the life-of-feld contract engaged with Oilexco. The news follows a recent “bankruptcy report” on the failed U.K. business of Calgary-based Oilexco and, earlier this month, Premier’s announcement that it was buying the credit-crunched former North Sea star.

It’s the first stime Sevan will earn a share of field flows. It’s the second time a “new financial model” has kept alive a Sevan deal and offered an alternate way to preserve revenues. At the Goliat field in northern Norway, Sevan secured a licensing deal to end its days of bearing all risk in the development of its “round rig” floating production storage and offloading vessels, or FPSOs.

The FPSO Sevan Voyageur is moored at Shelley, and the hook-up of subsea facilities for first oil was expected to take place in mid-2009.

Should Premier or its affiliates succeed in their purchase, as is expected, the floating producer will be operated under a production-sharing contract: Sevan will be compensated for costs on top of its share of monthly production.

Tags: Premier Oil, Sevan Marine