High oil prices see Field Development Studies revisited

• Marginal projects re-assessed

• Previous concepts and budgets revisited

The current sustained oil prices have seen previously marginal offshore energy projects get a new lease of life as management teams look to green light previously uneconomic projects.

ICON Engineering Managing Director David Field noted: “We’ve been seeing a noticeable uplift in feasibility studies and conceptual plans being revisited in the light of sustained higher energy prices.  Our Field Development Team has been working with both supermajors and smaller independent operators to refresh design concepts and refine capex budgets. While higher energy prices deliver better project revenues there have also been large changes in costs of vessels, equipment and materials used in field developments. In some cases, the new market realities change the form of the development. 

For small offshore marginal fields, Offshore Installation costs are commonly a major cost component where risks are greatest. ICON’s point of difference to our competitors is our ability to design low risk installation methods to mitigate the transportation and installation risks early in the project planning. We do find some facilities designs appear simple, but can expose Clients to significant offshore installation risks not considered properly during concept select phases. 

We are finding many operator’s wanting to eliminate costly floating crane barge spreads from their platform installation projects by using Jackup Rigs for construction. The Operator’s Drilling Department’s leased Jack-up is used for the well construction and is also be used for structure installation just prior to drilling. This methodology can significantly reduce project budgets, and eliminate schedule risk caused by delays or unavailability of crane barges and adverse weather.

For more information please see our Feasibility Studies and Concept Engineering page.