Eldon Ball, Houston
For this month’s geographic focus, theOffshore editors report on changes in the North Sea, a maturing exploration province where operators are using technology and innovation to drive new development projects.
TakeVenture Production’s changes in the Kittiwake field, for example. Oil from the Greater Kittiwake Area (GKA) fields in the central North Sea will soon transit through the Forties pipeline system. Operator Venture Production is replacing the tanker loading arrangement, in place since exports started in 1990, with a new 33-km (20.5-mi) pipeline tying in to BP’s Unity riser platform within the Forties pipeline system (FPS).
The £70-million ($144-million) project is the latest of a series of recent measures designed to lift throughput and uptime at the Kittiwake platform complex, which serves four fields in the area. Current output is 30,000 b/d, compared with 4,000 b/d, when Venture took charge in 2003.
Previous incumbent Shell had installed the platform to develop the Kittiwake field, southwest of Forties in UK block 21/18a. During the late 1990s, Shell added production from the Mallard subsea satellite, but by then Kittiwake itself was in decline.
To report on the project,Jeremy Beckman, Offshore’s Editor-Europe, spoke with Venture Production Chief Executive Mike Wagstaff. See his report beginning on page 36.
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Chevron is another case in point. Chevron is taking gas production to the northernmost reaches of the Dutch North Sea. Its A12 project, due onstream by the end of the year, is also the first to harness shallow gas from a cluster of technically demanding discoveries dating to the early 1970s.
These fields extend in a crescent formation across five blocks in the Dutch A and B quadrants. There are currently no gas production centers in the area.Offshore’s Beckman reports on this significant new development in his article beginning on page 30.
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Meanwhile, farther to the North, BP’s Ula field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea has been in production for more than 20 years, but a series of measures now under way should keep it in production for another 20 years.
In the mid 1980s, during the first-phase development, the production operations staff was told the job would last some seven to 10 years. On the 10th anniversary of startup in 1996, the company had extended its field life forecast by another 10 years. On the 20th anniversary in 2006, the company was looking at another 20 years and now is thinking of how it might go beyond that.
In his special report for our North Sea section,Contributing Editor Nick Terdre talked with Sigmund Prestegaard, BP’s field operations manager for Ula and its satellite, Tambar.
In his report beginning onpage 44, Terdre explains how Ula further demonstrates how technology and innovation can combine to improve recovery and extend production.
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Field of the future - now
About three and a half years ago,BP launched an innovative strategy for its deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico. It was called “Field of the Future” (FotF). Implementation of this plan would improve document control, asset management, reservoir performance, predictive analysis, and hurricane preparedness, all through a one-touch portal driven from a remote, real-time onshore technology center.
For this month’s issue,Managing Editor David Paganie talked with Steve Fortune, information management director, BP Strategic Performance Unit. Fortune was brought in to lead a dedicated team to develop and implement this integrated technology program that would fundamentally change the business. Read his description of technology for the future beginning on page 54.
