BP PLC reported start of oil and gas production from Kinnoull field in the central North Sea. Kinnoull is BP’s seventh and final major upstream project start-up in 2014, the company said.
The Kinnoull reservoir, developed as part of a wider rejuvenation of the Andrew field area, is tied back to BP’s Andrew platform, 230 km east of Aberdeen, and is expected to enable production there to be extended by a further decade.
In order to access the reservoir, a subsea system has been installed, together with a 700-tonne topside processing module on the Andrew platform. Production is now carried from the Kinnoull field to the Andrew platform via a 28-km subsea pipeline bundle—the longest such system in the world, says BP—for processing and onward export via the Forties pipeline system (oil) and the CATS pipeline system (gas).
In third-quarter 2012, Heerema Fabrication Group completed the process module to be installed on the Andrew platform to accommodate production from Kinnoull field (OGJ Online, Oct. 11, 2012).
Production from Andrew and Kinnoull is forecast to peak at more than 50,000 boe/d.
BP operates and has a 77.06% interest in Kinnoull, alongside coventurer JX Nippon Exploration & Production (UK) Ltd. with 22.94%. Andrew is operated by BP, with a 62.75% interest, with coventurers JX Nippon with 27.39% and Talisman-Sinopec with 9.86%.