North Sea portfolio

The North Sea remains an important region for bp – we know the basin and the barrels well having been here from the very start. We have a strong portfolio focused around the ETAP and Andrew hubs in the central North Sea and the Clair, Schiehallion and Foinaven areas west of Shetland.

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Our portfolio today is smaller than it has been in the past, but more focused and stronger with less operating complexity. It has longevity built in with considerable remaining production opportunities across our existing facilities. The North Sea is part of bp’s resilient hydrocarbons strategy – oil and gas that is lower cost to produce with lower operational emissions and maximising existing infrastructure

Shetland

Schiehallion Area

The Schiehallion Area incorporates the Schiehallion, Loyal and Alligin fields located around 175 kilometres west of the Shetland Islands. The fields are developed through the Glen Lyon floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Production from the Schiehallion Area was shut-in between 2013 and 2017 to allow for the Quad 204 project – a multi-billion-pound investment by bp and partners to completely redevelop the hub and maximise production from the fields. Quad 204 saw the removal of the old FPSO, construction and installation of the Glen Lyon FPSO and renewal of much of the subsea infrastructure network. The Quad 204 project by bp and partners was designed to develop an estimated 450 million barrels of resources, extending the life of the fields out to 2035 and beyond.

Clair Phase One

With an estimated seven to eight billion barrels of oil in place, the Clair field is the largest oilfield on the UK Continental Shelf. The field, located 75 kilometres west of the Shetland Islands, was discovered in 1977, but challenging reservoir characteristics and the technological limits of the time meant it was the mid-1990s before the field saw extensive drilling and 2001 before bp and partners approved a development plan. Production from the Clair field began in 2005 through the Clair Phase One platform which was the first fixed platform west of Shetland.

Clair Ridge

The physical size of the Clair field dictates development via a phased approach. Clair Ridge is the second phase of development. The bridge-linked platforms, which delivered first oil in November 2018, are designed to recover an estimated 640 million barrels of oil and ramp up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production. The new facilities, which are designed for 40 years of production, required capital investment in excess of £4.5 billion. bp and partners are now considering options to unlock future potential from the massive Clair field.

Foinaven

The Foinaven field is located 190 kilometres west of Shetland in water depths of up to 500 metres. The field was discovered in 1990 and sanctioned for development in 1994. It was the first deepwater development on the UKCS and the first west of Shetland. First oil from the field was in November 1997. The pioneering fast-track development was based on a network of subsea wells linked via a subsea network of pipelines, control umbilicals and risers to the Petrojarl Foinaven FPSO. In April 2021, bp announced it would be retiring the Petrojarl Foinaven from operations as the FPSO approaches the end of its design life. Alongside field partners, bp is looking at options to develop the estimated remaining resources from the area.

Central North Sea

Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP)

ETAP ranks as one of the largest and most commercially complex North Sea oil and gas developments of the past 20 years; multiple fields with varying ownership sharing a central processing facility (CPF). bp operates all of the ETAP fields; Machar, Madoes, Mirren, Monan, Marnock and Mungo. A normally unmanned installation (NUI) over Mungo stands around 20 kilometres to the east of the ETAP CPF. Apart from Mungo, which has surface wellheads on the NUI, all other ETAP fields are connected to the CPF via subsea infrastructure. The non-operated Seagull field (bp ownership share 50%) is in development in 2022 and scheduled to start producing through the ETAP CPF in 2023. bp is also pursuing other subsea tieback developments to the CPF including the Murlach and Kate fields.

Andrew Area

The Andrew area includes the Andrew, Arundel, Cyrus, Farragon and Kinnoull fields which all produce through the Andrew platform. The field started production in 1994. Andrew, Cyrus and Farragon were shut in in mid-2011 to allow for the Andrew Area Development (AAD), a major brownfield project enabling the Kinnoull field, located 28 kilometres to the north, to be developed through the existing facilities. The ADD also included extensive new subsea infrastructure, a new 750-tonne process module and structural strengthening of the platform. In 2017, the Arundel field came on stream - only 18 months after project sanction. As the Andrew platform approaches cessation of production, bp is operating the facility under a late life business model which seeks to ensure safe and reliable operations through the facility’s final years.

Culzean

The Total-operated Culzean field (bp ownership share 32%) is one of the largest new projects to be sanctioned in the North Sea in recent years and is expected to supply around 5% of UK gas requirements. The field was sanctioned in 2015 and comprises a high-pressure.high-temperature gas condensate reservoir. First gas is expected in 2019.

Vorlich

Vorlich is a two-well development in the central North Sea which has been developed as a subsea tieback to the Ithaca Energy-operated FPF-1 floating production facility which lies at the centre of Ithaca’s Greater Stella Area production hub. It has over 30-million-barrels of recoverable oil in place and is located approximately 241 kilometres east of Aberdeen. It came on stream in November 2020.