Wood Gets UK Tolmount FEED Work

Wood Group said April 10 it has been awarded a contract by Premier Oil to deliver front end engineering design (Feed) to the Tolmount offshore gas project in the UK southern North Sea.

Effective immediately, Wood Group said it will provide topsides, jacket, pipeline, flow assurance and subsea engineering expertise for Premier’s Tolmount offshore assets and export pipeline, which ties into the Dimlington onshore gas terminal in Humberside, operated by Perenco.

Premier said in annual results a month ago that its 50% interest in Tolmount looks “increasingly attractive” and that it was looking to farm down its stake to 30%. It also said then that the nine-month Feed was already underway, but this is the first time Wood Group has confirmed the award. It is targeting project sanction in 1Q2018 and says 540bn ft³ can be produced from four wells, with capex to first gas put at $550mn.

"This contract builds upon our existing relationship with Premier Oil and we look forward to leveraging our global expertise to support this key UKCS project,” said Wood Group CEO Robin Watson.

On March 13, Wood Group made a friendly takeover bid for rival UK-US contractor Amec Foster Wheeler that values the latter at £2.55bn.

Mark Smedley