Total gas discovery in the UK North Sea
Posted: 5 July 2003
Total has made significant gas and condensate discovery in Block
29/5b, in the Central Graben Area of the North Sea UK, around 240
kilometers east of Aberdeen.
Exploration well 29/5b-F7z was spudded to evaluate the potential
of the West Franklin prospect, where the water depth is 93 meters,
in one of the most challenging high pressure/high temperature environments
yet encountered in the North Sea (1,150 bars and more than 200 °C).
On test, the well flowed at a rate of around one million cubic
meters of gas per day, with 2,000 barrels per day of condensate.
The discovery, which was made at 5,750 meters and is one of the
deepest ever achieved on the UK Continental Shelf, will be put into
production from the adjacent Franklin facilities.
The Elgin and Franklin fields, which came on stream in 2001, currently
produce 240,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Condensate is transported to the Scottish coast via the Forties
Pipeline System and then to the Kinneil Terminal.
Gas is transported to the Bacton terminal via the Shearwater Elgin
Area Line, from where it can supply the UK market or continental
Europe via the Interconnector.
This new discovery reinforces Total's operations in the UK sector
of the North Sea and confirms the Group's strategy of applying its
experience in high pressure/high temperature environments to search
for new reserves.
Total operates the Elgin/Franklin fields and the West Franklin
exploration well on behalf of partners Elgin Franklin Oil &
Gas (Elf Exploration UK, 35.784 per cent; Gaz de France, 10.389
per cent), Eni UK Limited, BG Group, Ruhrgas, Chevron-Texaco, ExxonMobil,
Dyas and Oranje-Nassau.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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