Neptune Energy and its joint venture partners BP and JAPEX announced starting the subsea construction phase of the Seagull tie-back project, according to statement by the company.

TechnipFMC has aligned the Apache II pipelay vessel to start the pipe-in-pipe installation through putting around 5 kilometers (km) of pipe connecting the Egret manifold to the Seagull development, according to its alliance agreement with Neptune.

Alexandra Thomas, Neptune Energy’s UK Managing Director, said “It [Seagull] is expected to produce 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (bbloe/d) (gross) and supports UK security of supply.”

“This is a key milestone for Seagull – the first step in offshore execution of the project. We continue to work with our contractors and suppliers, focussing on the safe deployment of people, vessels, and equipment and managing the challenges associated with the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Thomas added.

For his part, TechnipFMC Vice President, Commercial & Projects UK, Mediterranean & Caspian, Bill Morrice, commented “Despite the challenging backdrop of COVID-19 we have worked collaboratively with Neptune as one team to deliver our scopes to date both safely and efficiently.

“This comes as a result of the valuable contribution from our design, engineering, HSEQ, procurement and fabrication teams and we look forward to continuing our working relationship with Neptune to achieve first oil at the Seagull development,” Morrice said.

Seagull project is a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) development located in the Central North Sea on UK licence P1622 Block 22/29C, 17 km south of the BP Operated ETAP Central Processing Facility (CPF). Proved plus probable gross reserves are estimated at 50 million barrels of equivalent (boe).

Neptune is the operator of Seagull and has a 35% equity interest. Its joint venture partners are BP with 50% and JAPEX with 15%.