UK: BP, Co-Venturers Approve Kinnoull Field Development in North Sea

On behalf of its co-venturers BP announces an agreement to invest up to £700 million (USD 1.128 billion) to progress a project to develop the Kinnoull reservoir in the central North Sea.  Kinnoull is the largest of three reservoirs that are being developed as part of the Andrew Area developments project, and contains 45 million barrels of oil equivalent. The reservoir will be connected to BP’s Andrew platform and enable production to be extended to 2020 and beyond.

Production from Kinnoull is forecast to peak at 45,000 barrels per day and be exported via the existing Forties pipeline system to Kinneil and the CATS pipeline system to Teesside.

Trevor Garlick, Regional President for BP’s North Sea business said “The Kinnoull project is a further demonstration of BP’s vision to sustain a material and high quality business in the North Sea region. It is also a showcase for the outstanding subsea expertise that exists within the UK. At its peak the project will create employment for over 1,000 people in the UK.”

Charles Hendry, Minister of state for Energy and Climate Change said: “I am pleased to see that BP is taking forward the development of the Kinnoull field. With around 90% of the development involving UK firms, this is a real big win for our domestic supply chain and shows that the thriving North Sea oil and gas sector continues to deliver economic benefit. I hope major global players continue to harness the expertise of UK companies as new developments come forward”.

In order to access the new reservoir, the project will install a new subsea system and caisson onto the Andrew platform. The backbone of the subsea system will be 4 subsea bundles with a total length of 28 km – the longest bundle system in the world – which will carry the fluids to the Andrew platform for processing. The bundle system is being fabricated by Subsea 7 at its facility in Wick, Scotland.

To accept the new Kinnoull production fluids, and to facilitate the production from the Lower Cretaceous reservoir below the Andrew reservoir, the Andrew platform will undergo major modifications including the addition of a 750 ton process module. Construction will be completed over 2 years, with the flotel Borgholm Dolphin on location throughout. The Andrew platform is expected to be shut down for 18 months during this campaign during which time operational work will also be undertaken to maintain the efficiency and integrity of the existing Andrew platform facilities.

The new facilities are scheduled to commence production in 2013.

BP owns 77.06%, with other interests as follows: Eni (16.67%); Summit (6.27%);

Since it started production in 1996 BP’s Andrew platform has processed and exported over 200 million barrels of oil and the equivalent of a further 40 million barrels in associated gas.

The platform is operated and maintained by up to 80 people and is located 230 kilometres north east of Aberdeen.

During the remainder of 2011 and for all of 2012 the Borgholm Dolphin flotel will be at the Andrew platform and will provide additional beds for up to 180 people to support the Andrew platform modifications and tie-in of the module to the Andrew platform. Up to 270 personnel will be offshore at any one time during the outage periods.

In order to access the Kinnoull reservoir, the project will be installing a new subsea system with the following key components.

Three subsea trees above the Kinnoull reservoir to control the new production wells.

At the Kinnoull end of the pipeline system lies the collection manifold, which houses valves to divert the fluids along the bundle and metering to collect production data. Closest to Andrew, the bundle terminates in the pipeline end manifold (PLEM) which contains the subsea isolation valves. Mid-way along the bundle system lies a tie-in structure to facilitate future development of the Arundel oil field.

The backbone of the whole subsea system will be a 28 km bundle, which will carry the fluids to the Andrew platform for processing. The Bundle contains 3 internal pipes: a 3 inch methanol line, a 6 inch gas lift line and an insulated 14 inch production line. The 28 km pipeline system will be installed as four separate 7km sections.

The caisson is a 130 metre long riser that will contain all the pipework to carry the fluids and signals between the platform and the seabed.

Detailed engineering will be performed in Aberdeen by JP Kenny and Woodgroup Engineering. Over 2 million man hours will be required to complete the design work.

Fabrication of key items will take place:

In Wick: where Subsea 7 will fabricate and launch the 4 bundle sections;

In Leeds: where Cameron machined and assembled the subsea trees;

In Bristol: where Vetco Gray are manufacturing and testing the subsea control system;

In Invergordon: where Isleburn are fabricating the riser Caisson and subsea structures;

In Newcastle: where Duco are producing the 28km umbilical and where Bel fabricated the subsea valves;

In Hartlepool: where Heerema will construct and commission the 750 ton process module;

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Source:BP ,September 6, 2011;