“I am very pleased and very proud to be able to announce that today at 14:33 hrs UK time we started to export gas from our Cygnus facilities to Bacton. This is First Gas, a very significant milestone and we should all feel very proud of this achievement. The Cygnus Project has been our focus for some time now, and I would like to thank everyone as you have all contributed to the project in some way. The Cygnus teams on and offshore have been working tirelessly to deliver this project and it is testament to their hard work that Cygnus has been delivered with a very strong safety record; which is impressive for a project of this scale. I’m very proud of the safety culture that has been developed, something I know the teams will maintain as we transition into steady state production,” stated Ruud Zoon, Managing Director.

After more than 18 months of preparation, the Cygnus offshore project is now receiving hydrocarbons and there is a palpable sense of excitement as this momentous project crosses the finishing line.

Offshore Installations Manager, Mark Scrafton and his team have been busy making sure all the equipment and safety processes are in place, mapping out and preparing for various emergency scenarios, from gas releases to ship collisions. An emergency shutdown drill (ESD) also aims to guarantee that Cygnus’ systems can be quickly shut down and restarted in case of an offshore accident. “Preparation is everything, because we all know things can go wrong in a hydrocarbon processing facility and the risks change daily,” commented Scrafton. “From an operations point of view, we need to be ready, available and prepared for getting through any kind of potential hazard or accident.”

Mark Scrafton acknowledges that managing a project as enormous as Cygnus has had its challenges, however, First Gas has arrived! “There’s a real sense of excitement in the air! We’ve been working long, hard hours, so reaching the First Gas milestone is very satisfying. This is what we’ve all been waiting for.”

Keith Murphy, Operations and Engineering Manager and his team have reached the end of a near four-year journey to get Cygnus ready for production operations. Major activities along the way included recruitment of personnel onshore and offshore, development of Managements Systems and Procedures, implementation of Work Management, Maintenance, Integrity and Production systems. For the past 16 months the Operations team have controlled all work activities offshore and have been taking over process and utility systems through a formal handover process. In recent weeks the pipeline dewatering and production start-up activities have been well managed and delivered safely.

“It has been a long and demanding road, but the team onshore and offshore are now ready to take Cygnus into steady-state operations. At the heart of everything we have strived to achieve these past four years, one given has been that we would achieve them safely. The safety record to date speaks for itself, it has been excellent. The level of professionalism, commitment and teamwork shown throughout by everybody is beyond anything we could have hoped for at the start of the journey. And it means that we have been able to establish a culture and a way of working that will serve Cygnus well throughout the long field life ahead.”

“For such a complex project, we can all be extremely proud of what has been accomplished at Cygnus and it is the result of years of hard work,” stated Cygnus Project Manager, John Rogers.

As Cygnus was brought on stream, the final stages took place within the same climate of constant vigilance and commitment to safety that came to define the project in its entirety. Considerable efforts have been made to prepare the safe export of Cygnus gas to Bacton, with continuous support provided twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

“After close to 15 million man-hours worked, the project retains an exemplary health, safety and environmental record which is a fantastic achievement,” stated John Rogers. “As the Project Teams hand over to Operations, I’d like to say a huge well done and thank you to those that have worked to get us to this point. We now turn our focus to the Bravo platform and work to bring Bravo on stream.”