Cambo

Location and Geology

The Cambo oil field is located approximately 125 km northwest of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, UK, in the West of Shetland region.
It is situated in blocks 204/9 and 204/10, with additional development encompassing blocks 204/4a, 204/5a, 204/9a, and 204/10a within the UK Continental Shelf licenses P1028 and P1189.
The field lies 30 km southwest of the Rosebank field and 50 km north of the Schiehallion field.
It is one of the deepest fields in Northern Europe, located in water depths ranging from 1,050 to 1,100 meters.

The Cambo oil field was discovered in 2002 by Hess Corporation.
Initially, the field was operated by OMV after it acquired the licenses from Hess in March 2014. Later, Siccar Point Energy acquired OMV’s North Sea assets, including the Cambo field, in January 2017.
As of June 2022, Ithaca Energy acquired Siccar Point Energy, and by November 2023, Ithaca Energy also acquired the remaining 30% stake from Shell, giving it full control over the field.

The Cambo field is a large basement high located on the Corona Ridge structure with sedimentary sequences wrapped on top. The main reservoir is composed of high-quality Tertiary Hildasay sandstone of fluvial/deltaic origin.
The field is estimated to contain more than 800 million barrels of oil in place.

A total of five appraisal wells were drilled at the Cambo field before its acquisition by Siccar Point Energy. The final appraisal well was spud in May 2018 using the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig.

The Cambo field is planned to be developed in two phases. The first phase will involve the recovery of approximately 170 million metric barrels of oil equivalent (Mmboe) through an early production system. The second phase will focus on full field development and the development of the greater Cambo area.
The development will utilize a purpose-built Sevan cylindrical FPSO, designed to operate without routine flaring or venting of hydrocarbons, reducing emissions. The FPSO will be electrification-ready.
Phase one will involve drilling eight new production wells and four water injection wells from two subsea drill centers. The field will have a total of nine production wells, including the appraisal well drilled in 2018, which will be developed for production.

The field is expected to produce up to 51,000 barrels of oil and 30 million cubic feet (Mcf) of gas per day in phase one.
Oil will be exported via shuttle tankers from the FPSO, while produced gas will be used for power generation on the FPSO, with the remaining gas exported through a 70 km pipeline connecting to the West of Shetland Pipeline System.

Seadrill subsidiary North Atlantic Drilling was contracted to drill the final appraisal well using the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig.
Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters was awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the Sevan cylindrical FPSO. KBR was subcontracted for the design of topsides and integration support.
Baker Hughes (BHGE) was contracted for well services solutions and the supply and installation of subsea production equipment. Genesis is the FEED contractor for the gas export pipeline.
Ocean Installer was contracted to deploy construction support vessels Normand Vision and Normand Reach for offshore works.

An Environmental Statement was developed and submitted to the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as required under the Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Production, Unloading and Storage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulation 2020.
The development is designed to minimize environmental impact, with modern equipment to reduce emissions and no routine flaring or venting of hydrocarbons. The field is expected to produce less than half the amount of CO2 per barrel compared to the average UK field.

Offshore development activities were initially planned to start in 2021, with the first drilling operations in 2022. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the timeline was adjusted, and first oil is now expected in 2025. The field is anticipated to be in production until around 2050.

The total production life of the Cambo field is estimated to be 25 years, producing around 150 million barrels of oil over this period. This contributes significantly to the UK’s energy security, although it represents only about 4% of the UK’s total oil demand.