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BP removing massive Liberty rig planned to reach offshore field
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
BP is in the process of removing the Liberty drilling rig from one of the gravel islands used for the Endicott field in the nearshore waters of the Beaufort Sea. In a project that began last summer, the company mobilized some equipment to the North Slope and hired a contractor to conduct the demobilization, BP spokeswoman Megan Baldino has told Petroleum News. The rig is being completely dismantled and removed - whatever cannot be reused or recycled will be scrapped or properly disposed of, Baldino said. BP anticipates the project being completed by the end of this year.
After originally planning to develop the Liberty oil field on the federal outer continental shelf of the Beaufort Sea from an offshore gravel island, in 2005 BP decided to instead use ultra-extended reach drilling from shore. Ultimately, the company settled on a plan involving the installation of a special purpose drilling rig on the satellite drilling island for the Endicott field. Parker Drilling Co. built a huge rig for the project at a cost of more than $200 million. And the rig was delivered to the island in the summer of 2009.
Project cancelled But the planned field development did not happen. In 2012 BP suspended the Liberty development, following an assessment that the project would have required significant changes, including substantial changes to the drilling rig, to meet the company’s standards. The eventual result was an impairment loss of nearly $1 billion following cancellation of the project.
In 2014 Hilcorp Alaska announced a new development plan for the field, having acquired a 50 percent interest in the Liberty field from BP and become field operator. That plan, which essentially involves BP’s original concept of constructing an offshore gravel island, has since been moving forward: In October the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a record of decision for the project, opening the way for the development to proceed.
Meanwhile, the massive rig, installed for ultra-extended reach drilling, has become redundant and has sat unused at Endicott. It is now being removed.
- ALAN BAILEY
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