Minister inaugurates new oil production facilities
23 Aug 2001
The UK's Energy Minister Brian Wilson today inaugurated a new 700-ft long oil production and storage vessel at a ceremony at the Swan Hunter Yard on Tyneside.
The facility will be used by its owners Kerr-McGee to extract oil from the Leadon field, one of the largest developments by any company in the North Sea this year.
'The success of Leadon, which is expected to produce some 50,000 barrels of oil at its peak, demonstrates that there is still tremendous potential to develop our North Sea oil and gas reserves,' said Wilson.
The Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility - called the Kerr-McGee Global Producer III - will be used on a field originally discovered in 1979 by the British National Oil Corporation (BNOC) but thought not to be economic.
In 1998 Kerr-McGee took a fresh look at the geology of the field using modern geophysical testing equipment. Since the DTI gave its approval to the project it has been successfully and quickly brought forward to the development stage.
'Leadon shows how the advances in technology continue to make possible the exploitation of fields previously thought to be uneconomic. The project has also been a great boost to the offshore fabrication industry, securing some 800 jobs for Tyneside and 40 new apprenticeships at Swan Hunter,' added Wilson.
Production is expected to begin this autumn. Reserves are estimated at between 120 and 170 million barrels of oil equivalent to be recovered over an expected field life of 16 years.
