The new Juniper offshore platform has begun its journey toward the southeast coast of Trinidad where it will be installed as BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC’s (bpTT)’s 14th offshore installation.
The Juniper project is a USD 2-billion investment in Trinidad and Tobago and one of BP’s largest start-up projects in 2017. It comprises a platform made up of jacket, piles, and topsides, and corresponding subsea infrastructure, which will be installed 50 miles offshore in 360 ft of water. It is the sixth platform that bpTT fabricated in T&T.
As bpTT’s first subsea field development, Juniper will have a production capacity of approximately 590 MMscf/D, which will flow to the Mahogany B offshore hub via a 10-km in-field flowline, which was installed in 2016. It will take gas from the Corallita and Lantana fields located 50 miles off the southeast coast of Trinidad. Drilling of the five subsea Juniper wells by the Diamond Ocean Victory semisubmersible rig began in May 2015. First gas from the facility is expected in 2017.
The Juniper topsides were fabricated at the TOFCO fabrication yard in La Brea, Trinidad, and measure 145-ft tall to the top of the helideck and weigh about 5,100 short tons. The jacket and piles, fabricated at Gulf Marine Fabricators in Aransas Pass, Texas, sailed to Trinidad in December 2016. The jacket measures 389-ft tall and weighs roughly 5,200 short tons. The platform installation is being handled by the Thialf, the largest deepwater construction vessel operated by Heerema Marine Contractors.