Furie Operating Alaska is moving the components of its Kitchen Lights gas production platform back south to Seattle for the winter, rather than trying to overwinter the platform in the Cook Inlet region, Bruce Webb, company vice president, told Petroleum News today.
"It turned out that was the least expensive option and the option with the least risk," Webb said.
Furie had planned to install the platform in its Cook Inlet Kitchen Lights unit during the summer of 2014, in hopes of bringing an offshore gas field that the company has discovered on line by the end of the year. But, following a delay during the shipment of the platform to Alaska from Texas, where it was manufactured, the platform did not arrive in the inlet until September. By that time it was too late to begin platform installation before the winter sea-ice season, so that Furie decided to defer the installation until after the spring sea-ice breakup in 2015.
The company has considered various options for what to do with the platform during the winter, including the possibility of stashing the massive equipment at Port Mackenzie, across the Knik Arm from the city of Anchorage. In the end, the move south became the preferred alternative.
- ALAN BAILEY
See story in Oct. 26 issue, available online Friday, Oct. 24, at www.PetroleumNews.com
