By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Nov. 12 -- Kerr-McGee North Sea (UK) Ltd. has brought its $650 million Leadon field development project in the North Sea on stream, less than 2 years after discovery and less than 1 year after the government granted development approval.
Leadon is on Blocks 9/14a and 9/14b in the UK sector of the North Sea, about 220 miles northeast of Aberdeen (OGJ Online, Jan. 10, 2001).
It was producing 10,000 b/d from subsea horizontal wells tied back to floating production, storage, and offloading vessel Global Producer III; production should peak at 45,000 b/d during the second quarter 2002.
Kerr-McGee estimates reserves in the Greater Leadon area -- which includes satellites Birse and Glassel -- to be in the range of 120 million-170 million boe.
"This marks another milestone in the development of one of our core areas, the quadrant 9 area of the North Sea," said Luke R. Corbett, Kerr-McGee Corp. chairman and CEO. "Our strategy to build core operating areas continues to prove successful, and we remain committed to further expansion of our operations in the North Sea."
UK Energy Minister Brian Wilson said the fast-track development "is consistent with [industry-government group] Pilot's emphasis on exploiting undeveloped discoveries."
