Hurricane Energy making solid progress on Lancaster Field

The AIM-traded firm said the Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading facility arrived in Dubai on 30 September.

It said its repair, upgrade and life extension works were being carried out at the Drydocks World yard in Dubai.

Fabrication of the buoy, to which the vessel's turret mooring system would connect, was also taking place at the same yard.

Ahead of an analyst site visit to those operations on 12 and 13 December, Hurricane Energy confirmed the internal turret had been removed from Aoka Mizu for upgrade.

It also said the first planned dry-docking was completed on schedule, during which a number of works were undertaken, including the removal of a thruster for overhaul, outer hull surveys, replacement of a number of sea valves, and installation of new bilge keels.

Initial tank inspections and cleaning had also taken place, with the buoy structure now taking shape, with major sections including the top cone preassembled and shell plating being attached to the cone module.

The company said the buoy locking ring had arrived from the fabricator and was being installed, with “all critical components” for the mooring now undergoing fabrication and the first of the 12 chains completed.

“We are pleased to provide an update on operations in Dubai, which are critical components of the Lancaster EPS,” said Hurricane Energy CEO Dr Robert Trice.

“Operations remain on schedule for planned first oil in H1 2019 and I look forward to showing analysts this progress.”