Denmark's Tyra field restart delayed by three-to-nine months
The restart of Denmark's largest offshore gas producer Tyra has been delayed until at least October 2023 amid "supply chain challenges" that have derailed delivery of the process module for the Tyra II production platform.
Tyra II's process module is being fabricated at McDermott's Batam, Indonesia shipyard, and is the last of eight project components to be completed.
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Consortium partner Noreco said August 3 that the module would now require additional offshore work once the shipyard has completed sail-away, before first gas can be achieved. The sail away of the module is still on track for early September, when the unit will be transported to Tyra via the heavy lift vessel GPO Emerald.
TotalEnergies now says first gas has been pushed back from 2Q 23 to October '23 - March '24. The load-out of the module is still expected to start later this week, Noreco said. Costing estimates have also risen as a result of the delay, from DKK21bn ($2.9bn) to around DK25.7bn.
TotalEnergies has also extended its schedule for the ongoing hook-up and commissioning phase. Once the process module leaves McDermott's yard, 580,000 offshore fabrication hours will still be outstanding, with an additional 165,000 hours before first gas. The prolonged lead times were attributed to COVID-19 "overhang" at McDermott, affecting project performance. Noreco noted that the shipyard's mitigation efforts had "proved not to be sufficiently effective."
Chief operating officer Marianne Eide said: "Today’s news on a revised scheduled for Tyra is disappointing, however we are now entering the last stage of the Tyra Re-development with a good definition of the work scope remaining to achieve first gas.
"We now have a robust plan built on experience from the initial nine months of offshore hook-up and commissioning and we expect to add more than 500 offshore workers. "
Tyra's first iteration closed in September 2019 following a 35-year lifespan. The original platform had sunk by nearly five metres due to wear and tear.
As one of western Europe's leading gas contributors outside of Norway, Tyra's gas output is missed by European markets stung by lower gas deliveries from Gazprom in recent weeks. TotalEnergies has a 43.2% operated stake in Tyra, followed by Noreco (36.8%) and Danish state-owned vehicle Nordsofonden (20%).
The consortium are constructing a 35,000-ton renovated offshore facility, in a decade-long project that started in 2013. Some of the old infrastructure has been refurbished and repurposed - for example the original Tyra wellheads have been modernised by local Danish suppliers.
Tyra II should restore gas flows to 60,000 barrels of oil/day equivalent, the peak rate achieved by Tyra previously, for an additional 25 years, resulting in a steep rise in European gas supplies. An earlier delay in 2021 resulted in Danish authorities downgrading national production forecasts, underscoring Tyra's vital role in Danish energy security.
With Tyra now at least another three months behind schedule, Copenhagen will be seeking alternatives in the interim to contend with the supply crunch gripping most of western Europe. Tyra II was expected on stream without further problems, given that seven of its modules have already been installed offshore, with the arrival earlier this year of its 3,845-ton wellhead and riser platforms and 5,584-ton living quarters.