BW Offshore Catcher UK LTD 2017 Environmental Statement
BW Offshore Catcher UK LTD 2017 Environmental Statement
BW Offshore Catcher UK LTD 2017 Environmental Statement
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 3
1.1 Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Overview of Operations 5
3 BW HSE Policy UK 10
4 Environmental Performance 12
4.1 Oil in Produced Water ............................................................................................................... 12
4.2 Chemical Use and Discharge ................................................................................................... 12
4.3 Waste ........................................................................................................................................ 13
4.4 Atmospheric Emissions ............................................................................................................. 14
5 Incidents 17
5.1 Unplanned Release – PON1 ..................................................................................................... 17
5.2 Regulatory Non-Compliance (NC) ............................................................................................ 17
REVISION SUMMARY 18
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
ABBREVIATIONS
BEIS Department of Business Enterprise & Industrial Strategy
CEFAS Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
CH4 Methane
CHARM Chemical Hazard and Risk Management
CNS central North Sea
CO Carbon Monoxide
CO2 Carbon Dioxide
DSV Dive Support Vessel
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EU ETS European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
FGL Fulmar Gas Line
FPSO Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel
FPV Floating Production Vessel
HSE Health, Safety and Environment
ISO International Standards Organisation
LAT Lowest Astronomical Tide
MODU Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit
NC Non Compliance
NOx Nitrous Oxides
OCNS Offshore Chemical Notification Scheme
OCR Offshore Chemicals Regulations
ODP Oil Discharge Permit
OPEPs Offshore Pollution Emergency Plans
OPRED Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment & Decommissioning
OIW Oil in Water
OSD Offshore Safety Directive
OSPAR Oslo Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-
East Atlantic
PDN Permitted Discharge Notification
PLO Poses Little or No Risk
PLONOR Poses Little or No Risk
PON Petroleum Operations Notice
PPC Pollution, Prevention and Control
SEGAL Shell Esso Gas and Associated Liquids
SEMS Safety and Environmental Management System
SOx Sulphur Oxides
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose
BW Offshore has one legal entity currently operating in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf
(UKCS), BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, hereafter referred to as BW Offshore. BW Offshore
are the Duty Holder / Operator of the BW Catcher Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading
(FPSO) which is currently producing from the Catcher Area Fields (Premier Oil UK are the
licence holder for the Catcher Field Area).
Under Recommendation 2003/5 of the Oslo Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine
Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR), the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for
Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) requires that all companies operating in the
UKCS have systems and procedures in place to identify, monitor and control the environmental
aspects associated with offshore activities.
BW Offshore, offshore operations, worldwide operations and offices and onshore services are
certified to the international environmental management system standard, ISO 14001.
Recertification of the BW Offshore ISO 14001 environmental management system was
concluded in August 2017. Surveillance visits are undertaken annually.
This report provides information on BW Offshore’s offshore operations and the environmental
performance of these operations. For the purpose of this report, this includes all production
activities in the UKCS. BW Offshore do not conduct drilling operations in the UKCS. All drilling
activities for the Catcher Field Area are conducted by Premier Oil UK as they are the Licence
Holder for the field area.
This report has been made available on the BW Offshore website at;
http://bwoffshore.com/responsibility/hse/
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
2 Overview of Operations
The Catcher Area Development is located in Block 28/9 of the Central North Sea (CNS) c. 170
km southeast of Aberdeen and c. 100 km from the UK/Norway median line in water depths of c.
85 m Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) (Figure 1).
The BW Catcher FPSO has been contracted by Premier Oil UK to produce from three fields:
Catcher, Varadero and Burgman. The three fields are tied back to the BW Catcher FPSO
vessel located at c. 56°46’12.43” N and 00°42’46.93” E (WGS84) (Figure 2). The principal
facilities include subsea facilities and a turret-moored and free weather-vaning FPSO. Oil from
the field is exported via shuttle tanker and gas is exported or imported by a new gas export
pipeline connected to the existing Fulmar Gas Line (FGL) to St Fergus gas pipeline.
The FPSO is capable of processing up to 60 000 bbls of oil per day and has a maximum cargo
storage capacity of 650,000 bbls. Therefore, at maximum capacity the FPSO offloads the
processed crude oil to a shuttle tanker approximately once every 10 days. When offloading
cargo, tank blanketing will normally use LP fuel gas, with this gas being recovered via the flare
gas recovery package. Initially, produced gas will be used for power generation and gas lift,
with excess being exported into the Shell Esso Gas and Associated Liquids (SEGAL) system.
In normal operations, Catcher flaring will be restricted to HP flare purge gas only. The LP flare
system includes a Vapour Recovery Package to recover purges and vents sent to the LP flare
system. The LP flare will be lit, as required, in process upset or ESD conditions only. Produced
water will be treated and then either re-injected or discharged under an Oil Discharge Permit
(ODP) issued by BEIS.
The ENSCO 100 Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) contracted to Premier Oil UK is
currently drilling in the field area.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
In August 2017 the BW Catcher FPSO left the Keppel ship yard in Singapore and transited to
the UKCS. The FPSO arrived in the UKCS in October 2017 where it stopped off in Nigg for field
preparation operations prior to hook-up in the field. The FPSO was hooked up to the
Submerged Turret Production (STP) Buoy in the Catcher Field Area on the 19th October 2017,
at which point the FPSO became an installation. In field commissioning activities commenced
and the FPSO achieved First Oil on the 23rd December 2017. An interim performance test was
successfully completed on the 6th January 2018.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
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3 BW HSE Policy UK
BW Offshore is focused on protecting the environment in line with our stated commitment to
reduce our impact to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable. This involves ongoing
assessment, monitoring and reporting on environmental impacts.
The BW Offshore Safety and Environment Management System (SEMS) exists to provide a
systematic approach to the management of HSE issues in order to protect people and the
environment and comply with UK legislation.
BW Offshore considers that health, safety and environment have equal status with other
primary business objectives and are of strategic importance. Safe working practices and due
consideration of environmental impact are vital to the overall efficiency and continued success
of the business. The HSE policy forms the basis for the SEMS and is presented below.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
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The SEMS was developed in order to meet the requirements of The Offshore Installations
(Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case) Regulations 2015 and Offshore Installations (Safety
Case) Regulations 2005, in particular the contents of Schedules 2 and 3.
The BW Offshore SEMS uses the existing processes and procedures contained within the BW
Offshore Integrated Management System, and is therefore an integral part of the BW Offshore
Management System, although specific to the operations of BW Offshore. The processes and
procedures, which are required to meet the UK Relevant Statutory Provisions, are contained
within the SEMS (Figure 3).
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
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4 Environmental Performance
Environmental performance for the BW Catcher FPSO is detailed below. There is no
comparison data available for previous years due to the FPSO only arriving in the field and
gaining first oil in 2017. During the commissioning/ start-up phase of operations on a new
installation certain permits come into force when the FPSO is hooked up and becomes an
installation (Chemical Permit, Consent to Locate, etc) and some only come into force when the
FPSO achieves first oil (PPC Combustion Plant Permit, EIA Direction to Commence
Production, etc.). The following sections will detail the date at which data has been gathered
from (hook-up or first oil) to the end of the year (2017).
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
BW Offshore, its contractors and its chemical suppliers work on a continuous basis to find
suitable alternatives to replace the products with SUB warnings.
*Data collected from the date of hook-up (19th October 2017).
EC1389B (Corrosion Inhibitor), Nalco Currently no substitution free products have been
Champion (Nalco Ltd) identified and R&D work is ongoing to develop an
alternative.
Figure 5 below details the BW Catcher chemicals permitted for use. Only nine chemicals were
used on BW Catcher during 2017. The highest use volumes are accounted for as first fills of
subsea and topsides chemical injection umbilicals. Some of these first fills have carried over
into 2018 but from 2019 onwards BW Catcher should see a steady state of chemical use that
reflects the quantities required to process the hydrocarbons that are produced.
20,722 kgs of chemicals were used and of those 3,275 kgs discharged during commissioning
and production operations.
4.3 Waste
Waste is generated from offshore operations and is transported onshore for re-use, recycling,
treatment or disposal.
Production installation waste is segregated into categories before back-loading. As much waste
as possible is sent for recycling. This includes wood, scrap metals, paper/cardboard, glass and
plastics.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
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Waste that cannot be recycled is sent to landfill. Certain types of waste that are harmful to the
environment (Special Waste) are sent ashore to be processed and disposed of by licensed
handlers in accordance with the relevant legislation.
BW Offshore target areas where the amount of waste generated can be further reduced. E-
reps are being established and will be actively involved in continuous awareness raising and
reduction of waste initiatives.
*Data collected from date of hook-up (19th October 2017).
Recycled
Waste to Energy
Landfill
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
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5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
October November December
During normal operations, BW Catcher runs with two turbines on fuel gas. During 2017 power
generation turbines and gas export systems still required commissioning on fuel gas moving
into 2018.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
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5 Incidents
BW Offshore strive to prevent the unplanned release of hydrocarbons and chemicals, however,
on occasion accidental releases do occur. All unplanned releases of hydrocarbons and
chemicals to sea from offshore oil and gas installations and pipelines, regardless of size, are
reported to OPRED and other statutory agencies via the Petroleum Operations Notice 1
(PON1) form. Permitted Discharge Notifications (PDN’s) are also submitted using PON 1 forms
when permitted discharges are in breach of conditions / limits associated with the installations
Oil Discharge Permit.
A number of processes are in place to prevent unplanned releases and these include planned
maintenance of equipment, asset integrity inspections, activity risk assessment, area
inspections, routine audits, procedural controls and training and competency for individuals
interacting with process plant. Oil Pollution Emergency Plans (OPEPs) approved by OPRED
are in place covering the installation. The plan is exercised on a regular basis and followed in
the event that an unplanned release does occur, to ensure that the incident is reported in a
timely fashion and that contingency and mitigation measures are in place.
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BW Offshore Catcher (UK) Ltd, 2017 Environmental
Statement
Doc. no: MS-MP08112
REVISION SUMMARY
Rev. Date Document owner to summarise key changes in the document
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