Judy

Judy Oil and Gas Field Profile

Location

The Judy Oil and Gas Field is located offshore in the United Kingdom, specifically within the J-Area complex. The exact coordinates are 56.6994, 2.3163 (WGS 84).

Discovery and Development

• The Judy reservoir was discovered in 1980 by Phillips Petroleum (UK).
• The development of the Judy and Joanne fields was initiated after several years of considering various development options, which were delayed due to economic and technical reasons. The final decision to proceed was made in 1992.

Operator and Ownership

• The current operator of the Judy Oil and Gas Field is Harbour Energy Plc.
• The ownership is divided between Harbour Energy (67.0%) and other stakeholders (33.0%).

Production

• The field began production in 1995, following the completion of the development in February 1996.
• Initial oil production was around 25,000 barrels per day (b/d), with expectations to average 35,000-40,000 b/d. Gas production was also significant, with gas being reinjected until market conditions improved.
• As of 2019, the field produced 1.13 million barrels of oil per year and 299.45 million cubic meters of gas per year. By 2022, production had decreased to 0.79 million barrels of oil per year and 202.28 million cubic meters of gas per year.

Infrastructure

• The Judy field is developed with a steel platform located on Block 30/7, while the Joanne field is developed as a subsea satellite tied back to the Judy platform.
• The platform has a capacity of 95,000 b/d of liquids and 450 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) of gas.
• Liquids are exported via a 24-inch line to the Norpipe system, and natural gas is exported via a 20-inch line to the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) line.

Reserves

• Combined reserves for the Judy and Joanne fields are estimated at 97 million barrels of liquids and 796 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas.

Development Costs

• The development cost for the Judy and Joanne fields was approximately £767 million (or $1.15 billion).

Drilling and Construction

• The drilling operations were conducted using the Santa Fe Galaxy I rig, which achieved several world speed drilling records while maintaining an excellent safety record. The original plan to drill eight wells in the first phase was exceeded, with all 12 planned wells drilled within the same period at a lower cost than budgeted.

Challenges and Legal Issues

• The project faced challenges due to Enron Europe Ltd.'s decision to delay taking gas from the fields, citing low gas prices in the UK. This led to legal disputes and the installation of a £50 million gas reinjection module to manage the gas until Enron was ready to receive it.

Additional Developments

• During the development of Judy, Phillips also drilled the Jocelyn prospect, which is now produced through the Judy platform. The gas treatment capacity was increased by 50% to facilitate this and other third-party processing.