The Culzean gasfield could produce up to 5 percent of the UK's gas needs by 2021.

Heerema awarded second Culzean deal

HARTLEPOOL, September 3, 2015 – Dutch contractor Heerema Fabrication Group confirmed on Tuesday that it would be constructing the two remaining jackets for the Culzean project in the North Sea, operated by Denmark’s Maersk.

The jackets are for the central processing facility and central living quarters platforms. Each of the new jackets will be 115 metres tall – at 8,000 tonnes and 6,800 tonnes for each platform – and will be constructed in both the Netherlands and Heerema’s Hartlepool yard in the UK. Work will begin next year and the jackets will be delivered in 2017.

This is Hereema’s second contract with Maersk for the Culzean project, having previously been awarded a wellhead jacket contract in October of 2014, already under construction in the Hartlepool yard.

The news follows the recent announcement of Singaporean company SMOE’s award of a $1-billion contract to build the topsides. Maersk will begin drilling in the Culzean field in 2019, with eventual goals of extracting between 60,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

“We are very pleased that we have been able to secure this second contract for the Culzean Field Development,” Hereema CEO Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven said in a statement. “For the duration of the work on the jackets in the UK we expect to support 250 jobs for the local Hartlepool community including our Heerema Hartlepool yard.”

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