Garrow

Location

The Garrow gas field is situated in the Southern North Sea, approximately 72 km east of Flamborough Head on the East Riding of Yorkshire coast, and about 115 km west of the UK/Netherlands transboundary line. It spans across UKCS Blocks 42/25a and 43/21a.

Discovery and Development

The Garrow field was discovered in 1991. It was initially awarded to Alpha Petroleum in 2002 as an out-of-round award. Subsequent equity interests were sold to Sojitz in 2005 and Edison in 2008.

Infrastructure

• The field is developed using a Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI) platform, which was installed in July 2008. This platform is a small steel structure with a design life of 15 years.
• The platform has three slots, but only two production wells (G1 and G2) have been drilled. The first well (G1) started production in 2007, and the second well (G2) began production in 2009.
• The gas is exported via two pipelines: an 8-inch gas export pipeline (PL2160) and a 3-inch chemical pipeline (PL2161), both approximately 22.4 km long. These pipelines connect the Garrow NUI to the Kilmar platform, from where the gas is further exported to the Perenco-operated Trent platform and then to Bacton, Norfolk.

Ownership

• Waldorf Petroleum Resources Limited (WPRL) is the Licence Operator and holds a 17% equity interest in the Garrow field.
• Energean UK Limited (Energean) holds a 68% equity interest.
• RockRose (UKCS3) Limited holds a 15% equity interest.

Production History

• Gas production began in 2006.
• By the end of 2016, approximately 7.6 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas had been produced from the field.
• The remaining recoverable gas reserves were estimated to be around 4 bcf as of 2016.

Current Status

• Due to declining production rates and limited remaining reserves, the field became sub-economic from 2015.
• In July 2020, Perenco (UK) Limited closed the Garrow and Kilmar export route at their Trent platform, and the Garrow wells were shut in. The Trent field was due for Cessation of Production (CoP) and decommissioning.
• A CoP application for Garrow has been submitted to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), and the field is currently in the process of decommissioning.

Decommissioning

• A Comparative Assessment of potential decommissioning options has been completed for the pipelines (PL2160 and PL2161) connecting the Garrow NUI to the Kilmar NUI platform. The assessment is part of the Garrow Decommissioning Programme and includes environmental appraisals.