Independent oil producer EnQuest has achieved an important safety milestone after recording a total of 11 years without a lost time incident (LTI) across three of its North Sea producing assets.
The Heather drilling team achieved eight years without an LTI, and during this period EnQuest completed its return to drilling (R2D2) project, which led to the start-up of drilling on the platform for the first time since 2006. The R2D2 project is part of a redevelopment programme that will extend the life of the Heather platform, which has twice faced decommissioning in the past, to around 2030.
On EnQuest’s Northern Producer floating production facility, two years without an LTI has been achieved while successful drilling has ensured the Don fields have continued to underpin EnQuest’s growth. Operations on the Thistle platform have been LTI-free for a year, during which period platform drilling followed by a major construction phase of the Thistle Life Extension (LLX) programme, were carried out. The combination of successful drilling and LLX power upgrades also delivered the highest production levels since the 1990s.
Neil McCulloch, president of EnQuest’s North Sea business, said: “This is an exceptional achievement by our teams on three North Sea assets that started life in the 1970s, and under EnQuest’s stewardship are now undergoing major redevelopment and investment to extend their life and ensure they continue producing safely for many years to come.
“We’ve had zero recordable incidents anywhere in our portfolio year to date in 2014, and are approaching incident-free operations where we have zero safety or production incidents. At EnQuest, we recognise that good HSE performance goes hand in hand with good business performance, and that both are outcomes of high quality operations.”
