Bureau Veritas (BV), a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification, has been awarded a three-year contract by Ithaca Energy to deliver verification (including remote) certification and classification services, and environmental verification and audit services for six assets in the UK North Sea.
Under the terms of the contract, BV will deploy its industry-leading digitalised delivery model BV Compliance for Ithaca to extend the boundaries of remote verification while reducing the total cost of asset operational ownership.
The six assets comprise of the Captain WPP/BLP (wellhead protector platform/bridge linked platform) and the Captain FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) vessel in the Captain field, the Alba North Platform and a floating storage unit in the Alba field, the normally unmanned installation in the Erskine field and the FPF1 floating production facility in the Greater Stella area. The Captain field is located in the Outer Moray Firth, with the other fields located in the Central North Sea.
The work scope for BV begins in January 2022 and is for three years – with the potential for a two-year extension.
BV has been providing a range of independent verification, certification, classification, and environmental services for the assets in the Captain, Alba and Erskine fields for six years under previous asset owners – an arrangement which has continued following Ithaca’s acquisition of the assets in 2019. The Greater Stella FPF1 facility is the latest addition to the portfolio of assets being supported by BV.
A key focus of the contract will be a reduction in the total cost of ownership for asset operations due to increased remote working opportunities. This will be achieved through a digitalised delivery model using BV’s innovative cloud-based collaborative software tool BV Compliance.
The tool streamlines planning, administration, project management and reporting to deliver a centralised live overview of the initial and ongoing assessment of safety, environmental and critical elements (SECE) suitability and supports BV’s global commitment to the energy transition.
The integration of the software with Ithaca’s latest control system technology will provide the opportunity to demonstrate the significant performance possibilities for remote verification in the offshore industry globally and increase operational efficiencies.
Paul Shrieve, Vice-President Global Services at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, commented: “We are delighted that Ithaca Energy has not only extended its independent verification body (IVB) contract with us for the five assets, but has also extended it to include the FPF1. We believe this reflects the quality of the services Bureau Veritas can provide to our customers.
“We are extremely excited to enhance our collaboration with such a forward-thinking company as Ithaca Energy. We are already at the forefront in remote verification, and with the combination of our digitally-enhanced technologies and digital tools, we are confident that facilities will widen the scope of remote verification services more than ever before – to be as good as or even better than physical inspection on the platform. From an industry perspective, we expect that these developments will lead to a significant increase in remote witness activities around the world.
“We look forward to working with Ithaca Energy to explore and develop a verification service fit for the fast-changing offshore E&P environment, accelerated through the energy transition, of offshore manning optimisation and digitisation that delivers value through a focus on total cost of ownership.”