Furie platform arrives but will not be installed this year
Furie Operating Alaska's Kitchen Lights gas production platform has arrived by barge in Kachemak Bay, on the east side of Cook Inlet. But the platform will not be installed on location in the company's Kitchen Lights unit until next year, the company has announced.
Furie says that all of the components needed for the Kitchen Lights platform, for the gas gathering pipeline from the platform to the shore, and for the onshore gas processing facility for the new field are now in Alaska and that the offshore installation will begin as soon as the ice leaves the inlet in the spring.
The heavy lift vessel for placing the platform on the seafloor arrived in Cook Inlet in July, along with the template to be used for positioning the platform's monopod leg and the piles that will hold the leg in place. Furie had planned to have the platform in place early this September, with first gas coming from the Kitchen Lights field by the end of 2014. However, it now appears that the platform has arrived in the inlet too late for installation this year.
Petroleum News has also heard that, for personal reasons, Damon Kade has resigned as president of Furie Operating Alaska and that the chief operating officer of Deutsche Oil and Gas, the German company that owns Furie, has become interim president of Furie.
- ALAN BAILEY
BP cuts employees, contractors
BP Alaska will be reducing its Alaska employees and contractors by 275 early next year, the company said this afternoon in a statement.
The cuts will match the company's "reduced operational footprint" on the North Slope, following the previously announced sale of BP's interest in four North Slope oil fields to Hilcorp.
BP said the reduction includes 200 individuals who accepted positions with Hilcorp and an additional 275 in early 2015, representing some 17 percent of BP's 2,725 employees and contractors.
BP said it "remains committed to increasing BP's activity at Prudhoe Bay as a result of oil tax reform," including additional investment of $1 billion over five years and the addition of two drilling rigs, one in 2015 and a second in 2016.
- KRISTEN NELSON
See stories in Sept. 21 issue, available online Friday, Sept. 19 at www.PetroleumNews.com
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