Energean takes over decommissioning of UK North Sea fields

Energean, owning 68% of the Tors and 80% of the Wenlock fields, has established a specialist decommissioning team.

Oil and gas company Energean has assumed the role of operator for the decommissioning of the Tors and Wenlock fields in the southern UK North Sea.

The company, now the majority stakeholder, has taken over operations from Waldorf Production, which acquired the fields’ previous operator, Alpha Petroleum, in 2022.

The Tors and Wenlock fields, which ceased production in 2020 and 2022, respectively, have reached the end of their economic life.

Energean, owning 68% of Tors and 80% of Wenlock, has established a specialist decommissioning team led by Andrew Shepherd, Energean’s head of decommissioning.

Shepherd, who joined Energean after more than a year at Perenco and has engineering experience with Allseas and Saipem, will oversee the decommissioning process.

The Wenlock field, discovered in 1974, saw the installation of a normally unmanned platform in 2006, designed for a 15-year lifespan.

The site with three wells includes a 435-tonne (t) platform, a 645t jacket and two 23-mile pipelines.

Production at Wenlock began in 2007. The wells were shut in and production stopped in November 2022, following which the pipelines were cleaned and positively isolated in 2022.

Located approximately 43 miles east of Flamborough Head on the east coast of England, Tors spans blocks 42/25a, 43/21a and 43/22a in the southern North Sea.

The move to decommission these fields comes after Energean’s announcement last month of the start of natural gas production at the Karish North discovery offshore Israel.

The first gas from the field was produced on 22 February 2024 through a newly installed second gas export riser.

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