Marathon is seeking to extend the life of its UK Brae area and progress the Norwegian Volund development in the future. A raft of upgrades are planned for the UK Brae area platforms under the banner of Get Brae Ready as Marathon aims to extend the life of the asset to 2025, delegates to a “Share Fair” conference in Aberdeen on future offshore opportunities have been told. A number of incremental projects are also planned, including low pressure operations on the Brae East platform, and on Brae Bravo. Artificial lift programmes are planned for both these installations, and there are plans for development of a gas cap on West Brae. Reliability improvements and capacity expansion is planned for the area’s water injection system, while an additional production well is planned for the Braemar field or a new flow line. On Volund, Marathon is now out to tender for subsea work including line pipe, subsea installation and pipe lay, and it is “likely” to tender for subsea valves. Volund – formerly Hamsun – is due to be tapped via five subsea wells – three producers and two injection wells flowing 8km back to the Alvheim FPSO. Volund production is planned for 2009.