Lift for Sullom Voe with Brent owner TAQA set to drill new wells

Sullom Voe is expected to see a boost in oil throughput before the end of the year from new wells being drilled north-east of Unst by TAQA Bratani.

The Stena Spey drilling rig is to sink four wells north of the Tern field and do further drilling in the Pelican field, next to Cormorant Alpha. Both fields feed into the Brent pipeline to Sullom Voe.

TAQA took over the Brent System from Shell last summer and also acquired the biggest single stake in Sullom Voe in 2008. It is the UK arm of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company.

The company aims to squeeze more oil out of existing North Sea fields and tap new wells. In October it announced its first new oil-producing well in the North Cormorant field.

TAQA managing director Leo Koot said the company intended to spend around three-quarters of a billion dollars in the UK Continental Shelf this year and believed the company was ideally placed to generate success in the North Sea. “We have the energy, the expertise and the financial strength from a diverse global portfolio to ensure we can fund and manage long term projects even in times of economic unease.”