Offshore staff
LONDON – BP has produced first oil from the Alligin field west of Shetland, ahead of schedule and under budget.
Alligin is 87 mi (140 km) west of Shetland in a water depth of about 1,600 ft (488 m). It forms part of the Greater Schiehallion Area and has been developed as a two-well subsea tieback into the existing Schiehallion and Loyal subsea infrastructure and the FPSO Glen Lyon.
The development has included new subsea infrastructure, consisting of gas lift and water injection pipeline systems, and a new controls umbilical.
It is a 20 MMboe recoverable field, which was originally forecast to produce 12,000 boe/d at peak. Since start-up in late December, peak production has reached 15,000 boe/d.
Ariel Flores, BP North Sea regional president, said: “Alligin is part of BP’s advantaged oil strategy, a development with a shorter project cycle time with oil that is economic to produce and low risk to bring to market. Subsea tiebacks like this complement our major start-ups and help underpin our growing portfolio west of Shetland.”
BP is the operator and holds 50% interest and co-venturer Shell holds 50%.
Alligin is part of a series of infrastructure-led subsea tieback developments in the North Sea, accessing new production from fields located near established producing infrastructure.
Vorlich is targeting 30 MMboe and peak production of 20,000 boe/d. It will be tied back to Ithaca Energy’s FPF-1 floating production facility in the central North Sea and is due onstream in 2020.
Seagull will be developed through BP’s ETAP (Eastern Trough Area Project) hub in the central North Sea and is expected to initially produce around 50,000 boe/d. First oil is expected in 2021.
02/04/2020
