Total Alwynassetlr
description
Transcript of Total Alwynassetlr
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Alwyn AreaNorthern North Sea / operations
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the company/overview
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TOTAL E&P UK Limited is one of the largest oil and gas companies in
the UK and part of the global business of the TOTAL Group, the fourth
largest integrated oil and gas company in the world. The TOTAL Group,
which has its headquarters in Paris, has operations in 130 countries and
employs almost 100,000 people worldwide.
The Groups operations cover the entire range of oil and
gas related activities, including exploration & production,
trading & shipping and refining & marketing - as well as
the manufacture and supply of a comprehensive range of
chemical products.
The UK Upstream subsidiary, TOTAL E&P UK, has its head-
quarters in Aberdeen, Europes oil and gas capital, and is
one of the largest operators on the UK Continental Shelf in
terms of production and reserves.
The company employs over 700 people, split between
its onshore sites and its offshore facilities. Being part of an international
Group means that the workforce includes both local and expatriate staff,
drawn from more than 30 countries.
With its affiliates, TOTAL E&P UK owns and operates the Alwyn North,
Dunbar, Ellon, Grant, Nuggets, Forvie, Jura and Otter fields in the Northern
North Sea. It also operates the Elgin, Franklin, West Franklin and Glenelg
Fields in the Central Graben Area of the Central North Sea.
The company and its UK affiliates also have a number of non-operated
interests in the Central and Northern North Sea including Bruce, ETAP,
Alba, Armada and Nelson and has an interest in the Sullom Voe Oil
Terminal on Shetland.
Onshore, TOTAL E&P UK operates the St Fergus Gas Terminal on the
northeast coast of Scotland, which receives and processes up to 20%
of the UKs natural gas requirements from over 20 fields in the UK and
Norway. It owns 100% of the Terminals facilities and 50% of the Common
Facilities, the remainder of the plant being owned by the Norwegian
Association, Gassled.
The company has a 100% interest in the UK Frigg pipeline (FUKA), an
interest in the SEAL (Shearwater Elgin Area Line) pipeline through Elgin
Franklin Oil and Gas Limited (EFOG), which is owned 77.5% by Elf
Exploration UK Limited and 22.5% by Gaz de France. EFOG has a 25.73
per cent share in SEAL.
people/power our success
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The welfare of its workforce is TOTAL E&P UKs top priority and it conducts all its activities taking full account of the health and safety of its people, ensuring the safest possible working environment and the prevention of work-related illness. Our goal is to achieve an accident-free work environment and thinking Safety First is the responsibility of all staff at their work locations, whether onshore or offshore. Best in class environmental performance is another major goal.
TOTAL E&P UK continues to maintain its company-wide registration to ISO-14001, the international Environment Management System standard. This is globally recognised as reflecting a level of good business practice and underlines a companys genuine commitment to sustainable development. We are very proud of this achievement and through the maintenance and improvement of our management systems, hope to continue improving our environmental performance.
2008 saw the launch of TOTAL E&P UKs Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Vision five individual elements that work together to drive our SHE performance. These five areas competence, supervision, SHE culture, risk assessment and asset integrity will give us clear platforms on which to focus our efforts in the coming years.
We set measurable safety, health and environmental objectives and work hard to improve performance, making sure that all our staff and contractors are fully equipped to understand and implement our procedures. In addition, we work with partners, suppliers, competitors, regulators and the general public in developing and testing our emergency plans, which we believe help to set and raise industry standards.
We also encourage a broad culture of openness and co-operation in the firm belief that this creates a positive attitude towards the advancement in understanding and improvement of performance in the areas of safety, health and environment all of which is reviewed and audited. Those who contribute directly to improvements are recognised and performance evaluations for all employees include safety, health and environmental aspects. This is particularly important for those employees with managerial or supervisory responsibilities.
producing safely/our top priority
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Alwyn/potential unleashed
Located in the northern North Sea some 440km to the Northeast of
Aberdeen, the Alwyn North Field lies at the heart of the Alwyn Area
Hub, a series of fields discovered and developed by TOTAL E&P UK
over more than two decades.
The fields currently developed are all 100% owned and operated by
TOTAL E&P UK and comprise Alwyn North, Dunbar, Ellon, Grant,
Nuggets, Forvie North and Jura.
The Alwyn North Platform provides
water for injection and power to the
surrounding fields and receives the
gas and produced water through a
series of inter-field cables and pipe-
lines.
Alwyn North has celebrated over
21 years of production and will
continue to act as the Hub for
developments in the area for at least another twenty years.
Over one billion barrels of oil equivalent have so far been
produced through the Hub.
Extensive ongoing investment in asset integrity work
and new technologies is ensuring the facilities remain safe
and capable of continued long-term operation, facilitating
the development of new significant discoveries as well as
small or technically challenging accumulations including
some discovered many years ago that would not have been
viable in the past.
By fully utilising the existing Alwyn North Platform, the Frigg
Pipeline and the St Fergus Gas Terminal near Peterhead,
North of Aberdeen, this will remain a vital production hub
for TOTAL E&P UK and potentially many other operators
and play an ever increasing role in security of supply for
the UK.
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In 1965, Exploration Licences were granted for the Alwyn Area and in 1971
drilling began. Within one year, the Dunbar, Ellon and Grant discoveries had
been made but the fields were not considered economic at that time.
Four years later, the larger Alwyn North discovery was made. Although more
viable because of its greater size it was still a very complex geological
structure and, despite considerable amounts of costly evaluation, a
decision to develop could not be taken. Five different compartments were
identified: Statfjord, containing gas and condensate; Brent North, Brent
Northwest, Brent East and Brent Southwest, all containing oil. By 1980,
the arrival of new technologies facilitated a three-dimensional seismic survey
to be conducted that provided much-needed additional information about
the structure of the field and provide the
confidence to develop. This resulted, in 1982,
in the completion of a 1,500 million plan to
develop the Statfjord and Brent reservoirs of the
field. Production began in 1987.
Brent Southwest, the most southerly reservoir
compartment, was developed as a subsea
satellite called the Alwyn North Extension and
was brought onstream in 1992. One year later a discovery was made
in the deeper Triassic reservoir beneath the original Alwyn North Brent
reservoir.
With the installation of the Alwyn North platform it became possible
to develop the earlier discoveries, using the Frigg Transportation System
(now known as the Frigg UK line or FUKA) and the St Fergus Gas
Terminal, to which gas is still exported today.
Some 700 million was spent developing Dunbar, which came
onstream in 1994 followed by Ellon in 1995 and Grant in 1998.
Improvements to the gas-handling plant on Alwyn North in
1999 increased processing capacity, enabling the development of
the nearby Nuggets Fields. In 2004 the subsea development of Forvie
North was possible via a subsea pipeline to Alwyn and in 2006 the
Grant production was temporarily rerouted to Alwyn through the Forvie
pipeline to facilitate the development of the Jura field.
Following a fast-track development, May 2008 saw gas from the new
Jura field connected to the Forvie Subsea Manifold via a 3km tie-in
and then produced through the existing infrastructure to Alwyn North.
New technology is also playing a part in maximising production of
the Alwyn Area, including multi-phase pumps on Dunbar and seismic
reprocessing that has enabled accurate and successful targeting of
undeveloped portions of Triassic and Brent reservoirs in the Alwyn
North area. Technological advancement has also helped to more
accurately identify exploration targets in the area, including the Islay
discovery in 2008.
Alwyn/the history
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Alwyn/North an evolving success
Alwyn North consists of two platforms (NAA and NAB) linked by a 73
metre steel bridge, which sits 31 metres above sea level. The platforms
stand in 126 metre water depth. Alwyn North A (NAA) is the drilling and
accommodation platform, while Alwyn North B (NAB) houses the
processing facilities.
Safety was the most important of many considerations when separating
the drilling and processing facilities. However, it also allowed the NAA
four-legged, steel jacket to be installed and drilling operations to
commence in 1986, a full year before the eight-legged NAB jacket was
installed.
In addition to providing crew access between the two platforms, the
bridge also allows the untreated oil and gas to be transferred from
production on NAA to the processing facilities on NAB. Once treated
the hydrocarbons are exported by oil and gas pipelines. The bridge
also carries all the common systems needed by both platforms, such
as electrical power, fire and gas control, emergency shut-down system,
process control and telecommunications.
In the 1980s a particularly innovative approach was adopted on the Alwyn
North project with the building of two platforms, putting safety
considerations at the very heart of the development plan. Further safety
measures included a thick blast wall protecting the high pressure module
from the accommodation area.
There are seven 58-man lifeboats on NAA and four 58-man lifeboats on
NAB, more than enough to hold the maximum number of staff on board.
Platform design ensured that the facilities could withstand the worst
weather the North Sea could produce, including winds of more than
160km per hour and 30 metre waves.
Further accommodation modules, added during 2009, provide 20
two-man cabins offering greater comfort and privacy for crew.
There is a continuing and extensive programme of fabric maintenance and
upgrades to the Alwyn North facilities, including produced water
re-injection and gas-lift projects. These are aimed at ensuring maximum
recovery of hydrocarbons and extending the life of the field. By ensuring
the facilities remain in
excellent condition and
installing new tech-
nologies and systems,
the Alwyn North Hub
will remain a key facility
for the development of
further discoveries in
the northern North Sea
for decades to come.
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Alwyn/life offshore
TOTAL E&P UK takes the health and welfare of its workforce very seriously
and provides a wide range of recreational and other facilities to ensure
the wellbeing of its entire offshore crew whether directly employed or
contracted.
Accommodation is in 108 cabins for two or, if overriding operational
reasons such as major maintenance work make it essential, three people.
An additional accommodation unit consisting of 20 two-berth cabins are
being installed in 2009. All cabins have their own shower and toilet facilities
and satellite TV.
All of the cabins are located within a safe refuge area, designed to
withstand every type of emergency and giving time for the crew to reach
the lifeboats in safety.
The platform has a cinema, a gymnasium, access to computers
for recreational and educational use, a quiet room, billiards, a
well-stocked library and a music room including electronic
keyboard and guitars. Public telephones are also available to
ensure crew members have access to friends and family
onshore.
Helicopters arrive at the platform most days bringing offshore
personnel their daily newspapers, as well as delivering a range
of smaller packages. Most supplies arrive by boat from
Aberdeen, a journey that takes about a day.
In addition to the recreational facilities there is an excellent
restaurant providing quality food and a sociable environment
in which to relax.
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Dunbar/Ellon and Grant fields
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Nuggets/cluster
The Nuggets Field lies around 20km South of Dunbar and was discovered
between 1972 and 1991 in four separate, gas-bearing accumulations. N1
has two wells and the N2, N3 and N4 each have one. Although not very
large fields in terms of recoverable reserves, production should continue for
several years to come.
The five isolated subsea wells that make up the Nuggets cluster are tied
back to the Alwyn North field via subsea pipelines, but are controlled from
the Dunbar platform. From Alwyn North, Nuggets gas is exported via the
Frigg UK line to the St Fergus Gas Terminal for processing and distribution.
Production from N1, N2 and N3 began in November 2001. N4, which is
tied back via a 13km subsea pipeline to the N3 manifold, came onstream
in October 2003. The N4 subsea tieback, at a total length of 67km to Alwyn
North, is the longest in the UK sector of the North Sea.
The Dunbar Field, located approximately 22km to the South of Alwyn
North was discovered in 1973 and came onstream in 1994.
The Dunbar platform consists of a four-legged, steel jacket 167 metres
high and located in a water depth of 145 metres. When the platform was
being designed, safety was a primary consideration. There is a specially
protected safe refuge area that contains the control room and has direct
access to the two, 45-man freefall lifeboats. These are located as far as
possible from the platforms more hazardous areas and are protected by
blast walls.
A core crew of 30 usually mans the platform but an addit ional
accommodation module was installed in 2002 allowing up to 60 berths
for use during maintenance and other special operations.
Development of the Dunbar field in 1994 made viable the development
of satellite fields, Ellon, discovered in 1973, and Grant, discovered in
1977. Both fields, located around 9km from Dunbar were developed
using subsea systems that link them to the Dunbar platform
by flowlines and control umbilicals. Ellon began production in
1994 and Grant four years later.
In 2004 the Forvie North field subsea pipeline to Alwyn was
installed. This enabled the Grant production to be temporarily
re-routed via the Forvie line during 2006, facilitating other
subsea work relating to the Jura field development. Grant was
then re-routed back through Dunbar prior to the Jura field
start-up.
In addition to working on new developments, TOTAL E&P UK
has a comprehensive programme of facility maintenance and
upgrading to ensure efficient operations and to maximise
recovery from the fields, as well as ensure their availability for
the development of future discoveries. This has included
installation of an additional 58
man lifeboat to allow the
personnel on board (POB)
to rise to 120 during major
works and the replace-
ment of the DunbarAlwyn
pipeline, a major task that
was achieved with minimal
disruption to production.
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Discovered in 2002, and with production starting in December 2004,
the Forvie North field has shown that considerable reserves remain
to be discovered in the Alwyn area and have a significant part to play
in extending the field life of the Alwyn North facilities. The field is 100%
owned by TOTAL E&P UK and is located 16km from Dunbar and
33km from Alwyn North. Water depth is 120 metres.
Gas and condensate is produced from the Brent formation in an
elongated fault panel by a single well. It is tied back to Alwyn North by
a subsea line through the Forvie Manifold, which has been installed to
cater for Forvie North and other satellite discoveries. Plateau production
is in the order of 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
In 2006 TOTAL E&P UK discovered the Jura field, containing some
170 million barrels of oil equivalent. This very substantial, High Pressure/
High Temperature (HP/HT) discovery was brought on-stream through
two wells only 17 months after discovery due to unique technological
and commercial innovations, including a pipeline bundle assembly
and the first subsea use of a High Integrity Process Protection
System (HIPPS).
Dunbar/innovation
Whilst safety is always paramount, minimising cost has also been a factor
in the development and continued production from Dunbar - so innovative
solutions are constantly being considered. Two multiphase pumps were
installed at a cost of 55 million and are an excellent example of successful
innovative planning. Housed in a 650 tonne module on the Dunbar
platform, they are the largest pumps of their kind in the world.
As the field matures and well pressures drop, increasing quantities of water
have to be pumped into the reservoir to maintain pressure. The pumped
water improves production from Dunbar and Ellon by keeping the pressure
of the oil, water and gas consistent, without the need for the three being
separated for treatment. Each pump can accommodate around 40,000
barrels of liquid and 1.5 - 3.5 million cubic metres of gas per day.
The oil and gas from Ellon arrives at Dunbar through 6 flowlines with all
operations at the subsea wellheads controlled through two umbilicals. Gas
from Dunbar and Ellon goes to Alwyn North for processing before joining
the Frigg UK line and being sent to the St Fergus Gas Terminal. Oil is
exported by pipeline to the Sullom Voe Terminal on Shetland.
The main Jura towhead was the
largest ever built for a towed
bundle and the subsea control
equipment was especially
designed to cope with high
pressure and wide temperature
variations, while maintaining
the highest industrial safety
standards. Production plateau
is in the order of 50,000 barrels
of oil equivalent.
Jura has shown that large
reserves can still be found in the
Greater Alwyn Area and brought
successfully onto production
through innovative and resourceful
teams, even under challenging
HP/HT conditions.
Forvie/North and JURA
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Alwyn/the future
In June 2008, shortly after production start up from Jura, TOTAL E&P UK
announced yet another discovery in the Alwyn Area. The Islay field, wholly
owned by TOTAL E&P UK, is located in Block 3/15 just 3km East of Jura
and lies in 120 metres of water.
The well was drilled to a depth of more than 4,000 metres and the Brent
reservoir was successfully tested for gas at rates of 1.22 million cubic
metres per day or 8,800 barrels of oil equivalent including condensates.
Studies are under way to bring forward development of this field by tie
back to the Alwyn facilities.
Several other exploration targets have been identified in the Greater Alwyn
Area and form part of the company strategy to maximise the value of
existing production facilities by exploring for satellite accumulations.
ALWYN AREA
TOTAL E&P UK Limited 100%
ALWYN NORTH
DUNBAR
ELLON
GRANT
FORVIE NORTH
JURA
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OTTER
Fina Exploration Ltd* Operator
58.476%
Fina Petroleum Development Limited* 22.520%
Dana Petroleum (North Sea) Limited 19.004%
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* Wholly owned subsidiaries of Total Upstream UK Limited
Otter field/delivers deep down
Otter is located 150km Northeast of Shetland and in a water depth of
182 metres. Although not actually produced through the Alwyn Area
Hub, the Otter Field is important in being one of the most northerly and
deepest subsea tiebacks in the North Sea. Oil was first produced there
in October 2002, with a plateau production rate of around 30,000
barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Production became possible by the bold use of dual Electric Submersible
Pumps (ESP) in a subsea tieback, which at 21.5km is the longest in the
UK to use ESP technology. The artificial lift provided by these pumps
accelerates production and increases overall recovery of reserves.
The field consists of a five-well development, three oil producers and
two water injectors, and is tied-back to the Eider platform. Oil is then
exported to the Sullom Voe Terminal on Shetland via the Brent system,
while gas is exported to the St Fergus Gas terminal via the FLAGS
pipeline system.
Otter is an excellent example of
how stranded reserves can be
un locked by techno log ica l
innovation combined with
commercial efficiency. The Otter
development not only adds new
reserves but extends the field life
of Eider.
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Photography: Franois Lacour, Ken Taylor
Design by Mearns & Gill, Aberdeen
Copyright TOTAL E&P UK Limited 2009
All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the copyright holder.
TOTAL E&P UK Limited
Crawpeel Road, Altens, Aberdeen AB12 3FG
Tel: +44 (0) 1224 297000
Fax: +44 (0) 1224 298999
www.total.com