Production Starts at Two North Sea Oil and Gas Fields

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Production has started at the Cygnus Bravo and Byrding oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

Engie E&P UK (Aberdeen) said that natural gas production is underway at Cygnus Bravo, with first gas exported 7 kilometres (km) to Cygnus Alpha, which has been producing since December at a plateau of 250 million cubic feet per day. The combined output travels from the Alpha processing unit, located 150 km off the coast of Lincolnshire in the U.K., via a 55-km link to the Esmond Transmission System before landing at the Bacton gas terminal in Norfolk.

Cygnus is one of the most important new oil and gas discoveries in the U.K., supplying 5% of U.K. gas production, enough to heat the equivalent of 1.5 million homes. The Cygnus complex comprises four platforms and two subsea structures, serving an estimated field size of 250 square kilometres. Cygnus has an estimated 2P reserves of 110 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) and an anticipated production life of more than 20 years.

"This is a major milestone for the Cygnus development," said Maria Moraeus Hanssen, chief executive officer of ENGIE E&P. "It is a very successful achievement, well controlled and safely delivered. I want to congratulate all the teams that have been involved. Gas from this second drill centre will contribute significantly to extending the plateau production that Cygnus Alpha has been achieving for the last eight months."

Bravo first gas was delivered from well B5 in one of the platform's 10 well slots, out of 20 across the whole Cygnus complex. A further three Bravo wells will come online this month, with a total of five available in 2018, after drilling of well B1 is completed. Statoil ASA has reported that its smaller Byrding oil and gas field is on stream in the North Sea, north of the Troll field. Byrding's recoverable volumes are estimated at 11 million boe, and development includes a two-branch multilateral well drilled from the existing Fram H-Nord subsea template, through which oil and gas are flowing to the Troll C platform. After processing, oil is routed in existing pipelines to Mongstad and the gas via Troll A to Kollsnes, Norway.

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