Wireline Issue 46 - Autumn 2019

“First and foremost the HPHT hub is about knowledge-sharing and optimising processes. The longstanding expertise in Total is a great thing for both assets."

25,000 barrels of liquid handling and 5,000 barrels of water, but Culzean does have space to host another 2,000-tonne topside module to cope with an influx of additional resources — or even another bridge-linked platform (BLP) should the team find something of major scale. “It’s fair to say that we haven’t found the next Culzean project yet,” Claus says (although Glengorm may well be poised to take up the mantle). “But we are targeting other prospects in the area — not in the same scale, but as with any new asset in a new area we will always be looking to see what the future is and if we can fill the hopper with prospects.” While Culzean may be unseated from its record- holding heights by the likes of Glengorm and Glendronach, its importance — to Total and to the UK — cannot be understated. Its unification with Elgin- Franklin under the CNS model not only cements the supermajor’s expertise in North Sea HPHT, but also helps secure the future of these assets for many years to come. In the meantime, he says that drilling will continue to ensure production rates over the medium term. “The best way to get access is to drill more wells, so we’re working on that to generate more future for Culzean.”

and they are both 240 miles from shore, so optimisation with logistics boats and helicopters would be natural.” Onshore, the goal is to move asset management operations for both fields into a single, digitally enabled ‘smart room’. For the new Culzean infrastructure, this support includes a full digital twin model — part of Total’s drive to run the facilities as “21st Century platforms.” This digital archive incorporates records for every piece of equipment on the platform, identified via QR codes and/or RFID tags, meaning personnel can pull up performance and maintenance records in seconds using mobile devices, allowing engineering or performance issues to be solved on site, with advice provided from onshore. With planned operating expenditure of around £100 million per year over the field’s 13-year minimum operational life, the hope is that new technologies and processes like these can have a significant impact on bottom lines. As for the future, additional capacity at Culzean and the larger CNS hub means new prospects could be tied back in the coming years. Current production capacity is 500 million cubic feet of gas throughput per day,

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