UK Shearwater to Flow Gas to St Fergus

Anglo-Dutch major Shell, and partners ExxonMobil and BP, have taken a final investment decision (FID) to build a Shearwater gas infrastructure hub in the central North Sea, operator Shell said December 8.

The dry gas now flows through the Shearwater Elgin Area Line to Bacton where it may go into the UK-Belgium Interconnector or into the national transmission system. After the investment, a 37-km pipeline will run to the Fulmar Gas Line, so that wet gas can flow into the Shell Esso Gas and Associated Liquids (Segal) pipeline and then into the St Fergus terminal for processing. The gas liquids will flow to Mossmorran where they will be separated and exported to customers.  

"This is part of our strategy to grow our gas production from around the Shearwater platform and it underscores Shell’s commitment to maximising the economic recovery of oil and gas from the North Sea," Shell said.

Shell has been working on the 'Central Graben strategy,' which links fields such as Fram and Arran back to the Shearwater platform hub. The strategy will see a simplification of the production process on Shearwater while maximising the value of wet gas flowing into the Segal system and on to the plants at Mossmorran. 

At peak production, the wet gas export capacity of the Shearwater hub is expected to be around 400mn ft³/day.

The Shearwater gas infrastructure hub follows the decision to develop the Penguins fields in the northern North Sea, the BP-operated Alligin field west of Shetland, the Fram, Arran and Gannet E fields along with the Gannet Export infrastructure investment in the central North Sea.