BP Starts UK West of Shetland Project
BP announced May 22 first oil from its UK offshore west of Shetland ‘Quad 204' project, the revamping of its Schiehallion field begun five years ago.
It is the third of seven new upstream major projects expected to come on stream for BP in 2017. As operator with 33%, BP is partnered in Schiehallion by Shell 55% and Siccar Point Energy 12%, the latter having replaced OMV. BP's equity share in the Glen Lyon production ship on the field is slightly larger.
BP plans to double its UK offshore production to 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day (boe/d) by 2020, with production from its new Clair Ridge project expected next year. In the next 18 months it plans to participate in up to five UK exploration wells; and to drill 50 development wells over the next 3-4 years.
Quad 204 is the third of BP’s major upstream projects expected online in 2017, following the start-ups of the Trinidad onshore compression project and the Taurus/Libra development of the West Nile Delta project in Egypt. New projects starting up through 2016 and 2017 are expected to deliver 500,000 boe/d net new production capacity for BP by end-2017. It expects some 800,000 boe/d production from new projects by 2020.
Location of Schiehallion and Loyal fields (Map credit: Siccar Point Energy)
Schiehallion and the adjacent Loyal (50-50 BP/Shell) fields were first developed in the mid-1990s and have produced nearly 400mn bbls oil since 1998. From 2017, these fields are expected to unlock a further estimated 450mn bbls (at 100%), extending the life of the fields out to 2035 and beyond. Production from the Quad 204 project is expected to reach a plateau of 130,000 b/d.
In other news, UK firm Premier Oil said the Zama-1 exploration well in Mexico's offshore Block 7 spudded May 21. It is the first exploration well to be drilled on acreage awarded in Mexico’s first international licencing round in 2015. Partners are Talos Energy (operator, 35%), Sierra Oil and Gas 40%, and Premier 25%; the cost of the well to Premier is $16mn.
Mark Smedley