Piper

Location and Geology

• The Piper oil field is located in the North Sea, approximately 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 475 feet of water on U.K. Block 15/17.

History and Production

• The Piper field began production in December 1976 with the Piper Alpha platform, which was initially constructed as an oil production platform and later modified to include gas recovery.
• The original Piper Alpha platform was severely damaged in an explosion and fire on July 6, 1988, resulting in the deaths of 165 out of 226 crew members and two crew members from the standby vessel Sandhaven.
• Following the disaster, the field was redeveloped with the Piper Bravo platform, which resumed production on February 3, 1993.

Current Operations

• The Piper Bravo platform is operated by Elf Enterprise Caledonia Ltd. and is part of a £1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) program to develop the Piper, Saltire, and Chanter fields. The partners include Elf Enterprise (36.5%), Texaco Britain Ltd. (23.5%), Lasmo plc (20%), and Union Texas Petroleum Ltd. (20%).
• The Piper Bravo platform has a capacity to produce 75,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d) and 34 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMcfd). The platform is connected to the Flotta pipeline for oil export and to the Claymore platform for gas transport to the St. Fergus terminal in Scotland.

Safety Features

• The Piper Bravo platform incorporates significant safety improvements based on the recommendations of Lord Cullen's 1990 report following the Piper Alpha disaster. These include:
  • Emergency shutdown valves on the seabed and platform deck.
  • Separate production and accommodation modules.
  • Multiple escape routes and freefall lifeboats.
  • Crew members can evacuate from living quarters to the sea without exposure to the atmosphere.

Infrastructure

• The Piper Bravo platform is a modular platform weighing 55,000 metric tons, with a jacket weighing 22,700 metric tons and the deck and modules weighing 25,300 metric tons. It has 24 slots, through which eight wells were predrilled.
• Oil is transported 21 miles through a 30-inch pipeline to join the Flotta pipeline, while gas travels almost 1 mile through a 16-inch pipeline to join the existing route to Claymore.

Reserves and Production History

• The original reserves of the Piper field were 1 billion barrels of oil and 120 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. As of the redevelopment, remaining reserves were estimated at 172 million barrels of oil and 14 bcf of gas. The oil has a gravity of 37 API and contains 1% sulfur by weight.
• Peak production from the original Piper Alpha platform was 274,000 b/d of oil in 1979 and 34 MMcfd of gas in 1985.

Impact and Legacy

• The Piper Alpha disaster led to a significant overhaul of safety regulations in the offshore oil and gas industry. The Cullen inquiry introduced 106 recommendations, shifting responsibility for North Sea safety from the Department of Energy to the Health and Safety Executive and mandating automatic shutdown valves on rigs.