John Wood Group, the Aberdeen-based global engineering and consulting giant, has announced two important developments for the company.
Wood said it has been awarded a major contract “to deliver topside modifications supporting bp’s latest subsea tieback in the UK North Sea.”
And Wood revealed it is delivering a scope for an energy company in southern Europe that will assess the feasibility of converting 125 km of natural gas pipelines for hydrogen transportation along the Mediterranean coastline.
In the North Sea deal, Wood said its Operations business will deliver engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) services to enhance the central processing facility of bp’s Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) production hub in the central North Sea.
“Repurposing of existing equipment on ETAP will be a key focus under the two-year contract to enable the platform’s connection to Murlach, bp’s two production well subsea tieback development,” said Wood.
Steve Nicol, Executive President, Operations, at Wood said: “Working with bp for over 30 years, this contract builds on our global relationship, and we are proud to support this important project on one of their critical North Sea assets.
“Wood will deliver this under our multi-region engineering services contract, with our teams supporting efficient and safe delivery of asset repair, modifications and enhancements on ETAP to enable production from Murlach.”
Wood added: “The cost reimbursable contract follows Wood’s delivery of pre-FEED and FEED work on the Murlach field, and the recent successful completion of brownfield scopes on bp’s Seagull field, another subsea tieback to ETAP that commenced production in 2023.
“The Murlach project will be delivered by Wood’s teams in Aberdeen, where over 300 employees support bp contracts.”
For the Mediterranean work, Wood said: “The study will advance the energy company’s decarbonisation goals and its ambitions to become a hydrogen enabler, linking European production to demand.”
Dan Carter, Wood’s President of Decarbonisation, said: “The European Hydrogen Backbone Initiative has underlined the critical role hydrogen and its associated infrastructure will play in the transition to carbon neutrality.
“The project is another step forward in realising the backbone vision, which aims to repurpose approximately 32,000km of natural gas transmission pipeline by 2040.
“We’re at an exciting juncture in the transition. Moving at pace, at scale and continuing to prove viability is required to meet the ambitious targets.
“With our vast global experience in hydrogen design, conversion and repurposing of pipelines we will support our client to innovate and harness the potential of hydrogen as a vehicle for decarbonisation.”
The Aberdeen firm added: “As further evidence of Wood leading in this area, Wood is providing front-end engineering design (FEED) for the HyNet project, the UK’s first hydrogen distribution pipeline infrastructure system.
“Wood is also delivering concept and FEED studies for nearly 2,000 miles of onshore low carbon pipelines in North America.
“As a leader in hydrogen production technology, Wood has been supplying hydrogen production units globally for more than 60 years.
“With experience in carbon capture and storage, renewable power and pipelines for distribution, Wood is well positioned to support the opportunities of low carbon hydrogen energy systems.”