North Aegean Petroleum Offshore Drilling and Production Facilities

Historic Project: Groundbreaking Work From Earlier in Fluor’s History

Client: North Aegean Petroleum Company E. P. E.

Location: North Aegean Sea, Greece

Business Segment: Energy Solutions

Industry: Fuels

Map showing the location of North Aegean Petroleum Offshore Drilling and Production Facilities

Executive Summary

Between 1978 and 1982, Fluor performed detailed design and engineering work as well as construction management and procurement for drilling and production facilities at an offshore oil operation located off the coast of Greece. The project included offshore platforms at two oil fields as well as miles-long networks of pipes and onshore storage and shipping facilities.

The field to be developed was located five miles offshore of Thasos and was the first known oil field in Greece. It was expected to produce 25,000 barrels per day of crude oil and associated gas for domestic supply.

Client's Challenge

The offshore platforms were to be built in two separate oil fields in the North Aegean Sea seven miles apart. There, engineers and construction managers faced the task of building on a seismically-active seabed with unstable soil conditions, 30-foot waves and depths of up to 190 feet.

Onshore processing and storage facilities were also required, including two 126,000-barrel tanks for crude oil, one natural gas liquids sphere and one tank for liquid sulfur. We also had to design an adequate mooring system for large tankers and 35 miles of pipeline to carry oil and gas between the drilling and processing platforms and to an onshore processing plant.

Fluor's Solution

We designed and managed construction of two offshore drilling platforms and one production platform in the Prinos Field and a drilling and processing platform in the Kavala Field.

At Prinos Field, we designed two four-pile, 12-slot drilling platforms and one eight-pile processing platform. At the South Kavala Gas Field, the single combined drilling and processing platform produced 5.6 million standard cubic feet per day of gas.

A 12-inch gas line piped sweet gas from the Kavala Field and sour gas from the Prinos Field to the onshore processing plant. An eight-inch pipeline separately channeled crude oil from Prinos Field after it was separated and dehydrated at the platform.

Aside from the storage tanks originally designed for the project, we added another 25,000-barrel crude storage tank to address additional collection concerns.

Conclusion

The project was concluded successfully in 1982. The total operation produced 25,000 barrels a day of crude oil and associated gas at its operating peak, as well as nearly 500 tons of sulfur per day from well effluent of 38 percent hydrogen sulfide.

The site was still operational as late as June 2009, with the client reporting an average gross oil production rate of 1,200 barrels per day.