Repsol Sinopec updates Beatrice decommisioning plan
Oil and gas player to take down pair of 5MW turbines as part of wider plans to wind down the nearby oilfield with the same name
Oil and gas player Repsol Sinopec has unveiled updated plans to decommission the 10MW Beatrice offshore wind demonstration project, located around 22km off Scotland’s Caithness coast in the Moray Firth.
The proposals to take down the two 5MW REpower [now Senvion] turbines is part of wider plans to wind down the Beatrice oilfield some 90km northeast of Inverness.
The two turbines were installed in two phases in 2006 and 2007 to show that the Moray Firth is suitable for a large-scale offshore wind farm. In a sign of how the industry has moved on, the 588MW Beatrice Wind Farm is currently being completed in the Outer Moray Firth.
Design of wind turbines has “advanced significantly” and the machines cannot economically be re-used, Repsol Sinopec said.
Decommissioning, together with other assets including drilling, production and support platforms, power cables and pipelines, will take place between 2024 and 2029, it said.
Under previous plans, work was expected to take place between 2024 and 2027.
The Beatrice oilfield and its infrastructure is being decommissioned after production ended at the site in March 2015, and because the Ministry of Defence has decided not to pursue a plan to use the complex as a military training facility.
