BP inks £700m North Sea development
6 Sep 2011
London – BP is to invest up to £700 million to progress a project to develop the Kinnoull reservoir in the central North Sea. The Andrew platform will undergo major modifications including the addition of a 750 ton process module. 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 bceyond. 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.
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 28km - 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.
The Andrew platform will undergo major modifications including the addition of a 750-tonne process module. This will enable it o accept the new Kinnoull production fluids, and facilitate the production from the Lower Cretaceous reservoir below the Andrew reservoir
Construction will be completed over two 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.
