Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Shell UK and partners Esso Exploration and Production UK and BP have committed to a new investment serving the Shearwater complex in the UK central North Sea.
The Shearwater gas infrastructure hub is Shell’s seventh final investment decision in the UK North Sea this year.
Others were thePenguins fields redevelopment in the northern North Sea, the BP-operated Alligin field west of Shetland, and developments of the Fram, Arran and Gannet E fields along with the Gannet Export infrastructure investment in the central North Sea.
Dry gas produced by the Shearwater platform, 140 mi (225 km) east of Aberdeen, currently flows through the Shearwater Elgin Area Line (SEAL) pipeline to Bacton, on the Norfolk coast of eastern England.
Under the new program the platform will be modified and a 23-mi (37-km) pipeline installed from a connection point in the Fulmar Gas Line (FGL) to Shearwater.
This will allow wet gas to flow into the Shell Esso Gas and Associated Liquids (SEGAL) pipeline.
Gas will initially be processed at the St Fergus plant in eastern Scotland prior to onward transmission of natural gas liquids to the Fife Natural Gas Liquids plant and Fife Ethylene Plant at Mossmorran to the south, where they will be separated and exported.
Steve Phimister, Shell’s vice president for Upstream in the UK, said: “Through close collaboration with our partners and suppliers, we have been able to reduce costs, simplify the production process and create an important production hub at Shearwater.”
Shell has also been working on its ‘Central Graben strategy,’ linking satellite fields such as Fram and Arran back to the Shearwater platform hub.
Peak wet gas export capacity of the Shearwater hub should be around 400 MMcf/d, or 70,000 boe/d.
The SEAL pipeline will continue to operate with gas flowing from the Elgin Franklin field for processing at Bacton in Norfolk.
12/13/2018
