Venture orders second Sevan FPSO

Venture Production plc (Venture), the Aberdeen-based UK independent oil and

gas production company, has awarded Sevan Marine ASA in Norway a contract for the provision of a second FPSO to be deployed in its North Sea operations, thereby exercising an option previously agreed between the two companies.

The hull and marine systems will be based on Sevan’s patented Sevan 300 technology (formerly known as the SSP 300) and will be similar in design to the first unit already contracted to start work for Venture.

The first phase of the new contract covers detailed engineering for production facilities for the Pilot heavy oil field in the North Sea. At Venture’s discretion, to be exercised before 31 December, 2007, this contract may then extend into a life of field contract with duration of five or ten years. Extension of the contract will be dependent upon successful appraisal of the Pilot field in 2007 and UK Government approval of the Pilot field development plan but the unit will not be confined to use exclusively on Pilot.

Venture plans to drill an appraisal well on the Pilot field during the first half of 2007 and current development planning for Pilot envisages project sanction during 2007 with first oil production in 2009. The contract further underlines Venture’s commitment to long term relationships and innovative technology as the means to unlock the development of ‘stranded’ fields in the North Sea.

Ventures? first Sevan 300 unit, which was previously called the SSP but has been renamed the Sevan ‘Hummingbird’, is nearing completion at Yantai Raffles shipyard in China and is anticipated to be deployed on the Chestnut field next year.