Edinburgh-registered Premier Oil has announced that the subsea oil storage tank, jacket and topsides have been successfully installed on its Solan oil well, west of Shetland.
The platform was fabricated in Scotland while the subsea storage tank, was constructed in Dubai – where labour costs are considerably lower.
The offshore hook up and commissioning programme will now commence. Precise timing of first oil from the Solan field will depend upon the progress of this next phase – but the platform could start pumping oil by the end of this year, with an initial gross production rate of 24 kbopd following ramp up.
Premier purchased a 60% stake in the 42 million-barrel Solan field in 2011 and was appointed development operator in January 2012. Solan will be the fourth development that Premier will have brought on-stream during 2014.
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