Tolmount infrastructure partnership celebrates winning prestigious industry award

The infrastructure partnership driving the development of the Tolmount field has won an MER UK Award at the 2018 Oil & Gas UK Awards.

The MER UK Award, which is sponsored by the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), recognises innovative and sustainable ways to maximise economic recovery from the UK Continental Shelf.

The Award recognised the unique and innovative partnership that was formed by Premier Oil, Dana Petroleum and HGSL (Humber Gathering System Limited), to unlock investment and enable the development of the Tolmount field, one of the largest undeveloped Southern North Sea gas fields to be discovered in recent years.

The partners put in place innovative commercial agreements whereby the ownership and operatorship of the Tolmountgas field is separate to that of the infrastructure, known as the Humber Gathering System (HGS).

HGSL and Dana will jointly construct and own the infrastructure comprising a platform and gas export pipeline, with HGSL assuming operatorship. This approach has significantly reduced Premier’s capex, allowing them to target their investment and expertise on the subsurface to maximise reservoir recovery.

As part of the Oil & Gas UK Awards, which celebrate success and outstanding performance across the industry, the third annual MER UK Award winners were announced by Andy Samuel, the Chief Executive of the OGA at an event on 1 November.

Alan Murray, Operations Director of HGSL said: “We are delighted that our contribution to MER has been recognised by the OGA. It has been a real team effort and demonstrates the value of upstream and midstream operators working closely together to stimulate future investment and deliver a project that is critical to maximising economic recovery in the North Sea. We believe it is a great example of the right assets being in the right hands and hope it will encourage other companies to challenge the norm and look for innovative ways to progress developments in the UKCS.”

Andy Samuel added: “As with previous years, it was extremely motivating to learn more about the exceptional work being done by so many companies, all in line with the mutual goal of maximising economic recovery. The OGA are showcasing this great work on our website and we hope these examples will inspire others to adopt these good practices and also share their own stories.”

www.ogauthority.co.uk/news-publications/mer-uk-awards/

Premier Oil and Dana Petroleum are both 50% equity holders in the Tolmount field. HGSL is a member of the CATS Management Limited (CML) group of companies.