Foinaven oilfield

Foinaven oil field is deepwater oil development approximately convert|190|km|mi|-1 west of the Shetland Islands. Together with Schiehallion, Loyal and Clair fields it forms the area generally termed as the West of Shetland.

Field description

Foinaven oil field was discovered in October 1992. It is located in blocks 204/19 and 204/24a of the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) in a water depth of 400 - 600m.cite journal | last= Carruth | first= A. G. | journal= Memoirs | volume=20 | year=2003 | pages=121–130 | url = http://mem.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/121 | title = The Foinaven Field, Blocks 204/19 and 204/24a, UK North Sea | publisher = The Geological Society of London | accessdate = 2008-02-13 | doi = 10.1144/GSL.MEM.2003.020.01.10] Recoverable oil reserves of Foinaven are estimated to be between 250 and 600 million barrels.cite news | url = http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/foinaven/ | title = Foinaven BP Oil Field, Shetland Islands | publisher = Hydrocarbons Technology | accessdate = 2008-02-13]

Although the location is described as in the continental shelf block, in practise Foinaven is the first development made beyond the actual reach of continental shelf.

Production

The Foinaven field is operated by BP Exploration in partnership with Marathon Oil.cite news | url = http://www.marathon.com/Global_Operations/Exploration_and_Production/United_Kingdom/ | title = United Kingdom operations | publisher = Marathon Oil | accessdate = 2008-02-13] The development of the field was sanctioned in 1994 and the oil production in Foinaven started in November 1997. The phase 1 with 21 wells was completed in 2000. It has the designed oil production capacity of 85,000 barrel of oil per day.

Oil is produced by subsea wells via a manifold, which passes through rigid flowlines and then flexible risers into a floating production, storage and offloading system (FPSO). Surface process facilities consist of two parallel oil separation and gas compression trains with a combined liquid handling capacity of 145,000 bbls per day of crude oil and 114 million standard cubic feet (scf) per day of associated gas.

The FPSO, Petrojarl Foinaven, which is operated by Teekay Petrojarl, has an overall length of 240m and an oil storage capacity of 300,000 bbls. It is permanently stationed in the field and the crude oil is exported by shuttle tankers. Oil is exported primarily to the Flotta oil terminal in Orkney with smaller amount is going to Tranmere Oil Terminal on Merseyside.

Approximately half of the produced associated gas is used for enhanced oil recovery of the field. Another half of natural gas is exported through the West of Shetland pipeline to the [Sullom Voe Terminal] . Some of the exported gas is used as fuel in the Fortum operated Sullom Voe power station. The remainder is enriched with LPGs and exported to the Magnus platform for enhanced oil recovery in Magnus field.

References

External links

* [http://www.bpnsi.com/index.asp?id=7369643D312669643D313836 Foinaven field (BP website)]