The partner companies in JUNO – Phase 2 of the Easington Catchment Area (ECA) development – have welcomed the Department of Trade and Industry’s approval of the Field Development Plan, allowing the GBP 270 million investment to proceed. The JUNO fields lie in the UK Southern North Sea off Humberside, and are currently estimated to contain more than 400 billion cubic feet of gross recoverable reserves. The project represents the accelerated development of the dormant ECA fields, made possible by investment which allowed the use of existing infrastructure and the unlocking of capacity in the existing BP export system. During the next 12 months, the project should underpin some 1200 jobs in the UK oil and gas industry. The JUNO development is managed by a joint team drawn from the three partner companies – BG Group, BP and Amerada Hess. First gas, which will be exported via BP’s Cleeton/Dimlington infrastructure, is expected to flow in the fourth quarter of 2002. Gas production rates during 2003 are expected to peak at 300 million standard cubic feet per day (50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day). The fields to be developed are Apollo and Minerva (BG operated) and Whittle and Wollaston (BP operated). A fifth development field, Artemis (BG operated), will be integrated into the JUNO project, pending successful appraisal in the first quarter of 2002. Drilling is expected to start on the Minerva and Whittle hubs before the end of the year. Platform and pipelines should be installed over the summer of 2002. During November, full contracts are expected to be awarded for subsea controls, topside controls, umbilicals and the Minerva platform. The pipelines and sub sea EPIC award is anticipated at the same time, and will cover detailed engineering, procurement, construction, installation and testing of all JUNO pipelines and sub sea systems.
