EXPORT CRUDES FOR THE '90S ALBA IS FIRST HEAVY NORTH SEA CRUDE

The development of the Alba oil field will constitute two North Sea firsts: the first Eocene reservoir developed, and the first development to handle heavy crude. The field was discovered in Block 16/26 of the North Sea's U.K. sector in 1984. The Alba field is in the heart of the North Sea, about midway between the northern fields of the East Shetlands basin and the southern Fulmar and Argyll fields. About 250 million bbl of the estimated 1 billion bbl reservoir of 20' gravity crude is