Abu Dhabi’s National Energy Company, Taqa announced it had tapped first oil from the Cladhan field in the UK North Sea, World Oil reported.  The Cladhan field development consists of three wells and is to produce 10,000b/d of oil, informed Khaleej Times.  It is a subsea tie-back to the Taqa-operated Tern Alpha platform, located 100km northeast of the Shetland Islands in a water depth of approximately 150 meters.

Taqa has become the North Sea oil pipeline operator after having taken over from supermajor Royal Dutch Shell in 2009. Within the region, Taqa operates a total of five offshore platforms that cover 13 separate offshore oil and gas fields in the Northern and Central North Sea, and holds non-operated offshore in the Southern North Sea, Offshore Post informed.

Meanwhile, Taqa has completed three of its six major projects worldwide – the 4.1bcm Bergermeer gas storage in the Netherlands, the expanded 330 MW Takoradi T2 power plant in Ghana, and 100 MW Sorang hydro plant in northern India, Khaleej Times wrote. Taqa’s unfinished projects – the UAE-based 30 MIGD expansion of its Fujairah water plant and the first phase of the company’s Atrush project in the Kurdistan region of Iraq – are scheduled to be completed in 2016.