New Clair Ridge jackets safely installed west of Shetland

BP and its co-venturers, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell, are pleased to confirm the safe installation of the Clair Ridge platform jackets, a major milestone in the Clair Ridge project.

Clair Ridge is a £4.5billion investment in the second phase of development on the Clair field which lies 75km to the west of the Shetland Islands. The project will comprise two new bridge-linked platforms, as well as new pipeline infrastructure to connect to processing facilities on Shetland. The next major milestone is the installation of the topsides, scheduled in 2015, with production expected to commence in late 2016.

Trevor Garlick, Regional President for BP’s North Sea business said: “Less than two years ago we announced our decision to invest in the giant Clair Ridge project. The safe installation of the two jackets in to the sea bed is a fantastic achievement by the project team, and is a very visible sign of our commitment to maintaining a successful long term business in the UK.”

The Clair Ridge development will have the capability to produce an estimated 640 million barrels of oil over a 40 year period, with peak production expected to be up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day. The project is headquartered in London, where over 750 people are currently employed. Approximately half of the Clair Ridge investment is occurring in the UK, with over 80 British companies providing engineering design and support services, hook up and installation services, manpower and a wide range of engineered equipment.

Clair Ridge is the first sanctioned large-scale offshore enhanced oil recovery (EOR) scheme using reduced salinity water injection (LoSal® EOR) to extract a higher proportion of oil over the life of the field. To reduce the environmental impact of the project, the platforms will be powered using dual-fuel power generators, incorporating waste heat recovery technology. Vapour recovery will also be used to capture and recycle low pressure gas for use as fuel or for exporting to shore.

Facts and Figures

• The Clair field was originally discovered in 1977;
• The Clair field is located 75 km west of Shetland and extends over an area of 220km2, in water depths of approximately 140m;
• The first development phase (Clair Phase 1) was sanctioned in 2001. It was developed with a single fixed platform with production and process topsides facilities, supported by a steel jacket and associated oil and gas export facilities;
• Production from the Clair field commenced in February 2005 from the first phase facilities and has so far produced around 90 million barrels. The first phase facilities are designed to continue producing until 2028;
• The second phase of the development -Clair Ridge - is planned to target the part of the field to the north of Clair Phase 1;
• Oil and gas is exported via pipelines to the Sullom Voe terminal on Shetland where it is processed for onward use;
• Total hydrocarbons initially in place across the entire field are estimated at around 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, although due to the highly complex and fractured nature of the reservoir, there has been considerable uncertainty as to how much of the oil could be recovered.
• The Clair Ridge facilities are designed to continue producing until 2050.
• The Clair Ridge project is headquartered in London, where approximately 750 people are currently employed;
• The engineering is being delivered by AMEC and Rig Design Services (RDS), both UK companies;
• The Clair Ridge facilities will consist of two bridge-linked fixed steel jacket platforms and topsides, comprising a drilling and production (DP) platform and a quarters and utilities (QU) platform;
• The jackets are constructed from tubular steel members in a framework that provides the stability to support the topsides loadings. They are piled into the seabed.
• The new facilities will tie in to the existing oil and gas export pipelines to the Shetland Islands. There is also provision on the DP platform for future subsea tie-backs;
• Around 30% of the £2.1bn base cost of the project (i.e. all engineering, all project management, a large share of the topsides equipment) is in the UK;
• Around 80% of the estimated £1.1bn of drilling costs will be spent in the UK;
• Following a global competitive tendering process the initial “pre-sanction” awards for the platform jackets were made in Q3 2010 to Kvaerner’s fabrication yard in Verdal, Norway. A pre-sanction award for the platform topsides was made to Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea in Q2 2011;
• In Norwegian tradition the jackets have been formally named. The largest has been called Odin, after the largest and most powerful Norse god, reflecting the size of the jacket. The smaller jacket has been named Frigg, Odin’s wife.
• LoSal® EOR was developed by BP’s enhanced recovery technology team, known as Pushing Reservoir Limits™, following a decade of laboratory tests at BP’s UK research centre at Sunbury-on-Thames, using sandstone samples from across BP’s global operations. Then, near well-bore single-well tests in several oilfields were performed to prove the technology worked in practice.
• LoSal technology has already been successfully tested in a field trial in the Endicott field, Alaska, between 2008 and 2009, where low salinity water was injected in one well and the incremental oil production observed in another. Endicott proved up the laboratory trials at full scale.
• LoSal® EOR is part of BP’s Designer Water® suite of technologies. LoSal and Designer Water are registered trade marks of BP p.l.c, Pushing Reservoir Limits™ is a trade mark of BP p.l.c
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Further information

Media enquiries

BP press office, Aberdeen, 01224 832030

BP press office, London, 0207 496 4076

Notes to editors:

The Clair co-venturers

• BP Exploration Operating Co 27.6215%
• Britoil plc (BP) 0.98%
• ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited 24.0029%
• Chevron North Sea Limited 19.4225%
• Enterprise Oil Limited (Shell) 18.6831%
• Shell Clair UK Limited (Shell) 9.2900%