Deveron

Location

The Deveron and Thistle fields are located in the North Sea, approximately 125 miles (201 km) north-east of Sumburgh in the Shetland Isles and 275 miles (442 km) north-east of Aberdeen, UK. They are situated in Block 211/18.

Discovery and Development

• The Deveron field was discovered in 1972, while the Thistle field was discovered in 1973.
• The Thistle Alpha platform, which serves both fields, was installed in 1976 by BNOC, Britoil, and BP.
• Production from the Deveron field began in 1978.

Ownership

• EnQuest holds a 99% interest in the fields, while BP holds a 1% interest.
• The operatorship of the fields has changed over the years, with DNO taking over in 2003, followed by Lundin in 2004, and finally EnQuest in 2010.

Production Details

• At the peak in 1982, the combined production from the Deveron field was 122,000 barrels of oil per day (boepd) and 36 million standard cubic feet a day (mmscfd) of gas.
• The Deveron field was initially developed using 43 producing wells and 15 water injection wells.
• In 1984, oil production from the Deveron field was also supported by four deviated wells drilled from the Thistle platform.

Current Production Status

• As of the last available data, the Thistle and Deveron fields had 18 producing wells and seven water injection wells.
• The combined net production rate from the fields was around 7,925 boepd in 2013.

Infrastructure

• The Thistle Alpha platform is a 60-slot drilling and production platform installed at a water depth of 161.5 meters. It features a conventional steel jacket with four main legs, supporting 36 modules on three deck levels.
• The produced oil is processed using a two-stage production separation system and then mixed with oil from the neighboring Dons field before being exported via a 16-inch diameter oil export pipeline to the Brent Pipeline System, which further conveys it to the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal.

Life Extension and Upgrades

• The LLX project, completed in 2016, aimed to extend the life of the field by an additional 15 years and recover a further 35 million barrels of oil from the Thistle and Deveron fields.
• The project included various upgrades such as new wells, electric submersible pumps, well workovers, and partial well abandonments. It also generated approximately 1,000 new jobs during the construction phase.

Geology

• Oil and gas in the Thistle and Deveron fields are found within the Rannoch, Etive, Ness, and Tarbert sands.