Alpha Petroleum and GE Oil & Gas Partner on Cheviot Oilfield
Friday 26 May 2017
Alpha Petroleum has made an agreement with GE Oil & Gas to partner on the advancement of the subsea infrastructure for the Cheviot oilfield. The field, located in the UK North Sea, offers 55 million bbls of oil and 20 million boe of future gas production.
Alpha Petroleum has named GE Oil & Gas as the exclusive supplier of early engineering, project management, and procurement activities for the project.
The contract comprises the supply by GE Oil & Gas of subsea trees, a full control system, three manifolds, flexible jumpers, flowlines, risers and umbilicals. GE Oil & Gas will also provide subsea construction and installation services, and support commissioning.
In addition to the provision of services and technologies, GE Energy Financial Services is helping to raise the needed debt financing for the project and is in discussion with Alpha Petroleum with the intention, subject to due diligence, of making a significant capital investment at the time of final investment decision (FID), which is expected in 4Q17. FID is the point at which the project is awarded UK Government approval, allowing agreed construction contracts to be executed.
GE Energy Financial Services is GE’s energy investing business with deep domain experience in oil and gas infrastructure investing.
“Through this full life-of-field partnership, Alpha Petroleum is defining the performance characteristics they require and empowering GE Oil & Gas to design the necessary solutions. While the benefits are clear, this represents another very positive example of how the traditional, transactional relationship between industry players is evolving into a partnership approach,” said GE Oil & Gas Europe CEO, Michele Stangarone.
The Cheviot field is 100% owned by Alpha Petroleum and its core development will consist of 18 firm and 5 contingent wells. First oil is expected in 2019 at an expected rate of at least 30 000 bpd.
Arun Subbiah, founding partner at Petroleum Equity, commented: “It is extremely satisfying to see Alpha Petroleum making such great strides towards realising the potential of the Cheviot field. We have been working hand-in-hand with Alpha on the project since we first invested back in 2014 and are all delighted to have attracted a partner of GE’s calibre. We see this partnership as a significant endorsement of our investment thesis and look forward to working together to bring the development to fruition.”
Andy Crouch, Alpha Petroleum’s Chief Executive, said: “By taking this unconventional, collaborative approach, we have been able to really draw on GE’s expertise, enabling us to minimise costs and timescales. This partnership marks another key milestone in Cheviot’s development and we are excited to see the project move forward to the next stage.”