Scott

Location

The Scott field is situated approximately 130 miles northeast of Aberdeen, spanning across Blocks 15/21a and 15/22 in the UK North Sea.

Development Approval and Timeline

The project received approval from the U.K. Department of Energy in August 1990. Despite an initially aggressive schedule, the project was ahead of its targets, with first oil production expected to be achieved at least two months earlier than the end of 1993.

Production and Reserves

• The Scott field is estimated to have reserves of 450 million barrels of oil and 287 billion cubic feet of gas.
• It was projected to reach plateau production of nearly 200,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil within a month of first oil.
• Each production well was intended to produce a minimum of 25,000 b/d of oil.

Infrastructure and Design

• The development involved a two-platform, bridge-linked facility. The larger process platform houses the drilling package and processing equipment, while the utilities platform contains non-hazardous equipment such as seawater injection, power generation, accommodation, and the main control room within a temporary safe refuge.
• The subsea facilities include three manifold clusters of water injection wells linked to the utilities platform and seven production wells tied back to the process platform.
• At the start of production, seven producers and seven injectors were planned to be operational.

Export Infrastructure

• Oil from the Scott field is exported via a pipeline that joins the BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd.'s Forties system, coming ashore at Cruden Bay near Aberdeen and then transported to the Kinneil oil terminal near Edinburgh for processing.
• Gas production is exported through the SAGE pipeline, with landfall at the Mobil North Sea Ltd. terminal at St. Fergus. All gas production from Scott has been sold to Mobil Gas Marketing.

Development Approach

• The project was characterized as a "plug-in" rather than a conventional hook-up project, emphasizing rapid deployment and early production.
• To achieve early production, AHL predrilled a proportion of the production and injection wells. This approach was facilitated by the extensive data from 12 exploration and appraisal wells, which helped reduce the risks associated with predrilling.

Safety and Efficiency

• Safety and the desire to reach first oil and subsequent plateau production quickly were key factors in the development approach.
• The project aimed to minimize the period of offshore construction, hook-up, and commissioning. The offshore hook-up and commissioning work were estimated to require 837,000 man-hours, significantly less than other recent projects in the area.

Economic Considerations

• The economics of the Scott field were highly sensitive to the timing of first oil production. Bringing sales of oil close to construction expenditure was crucial to increasing the field's profitability.

Impact on UK Oil Needs

• The Scott field was expected to provide the equivalent of 10% of the UK's oil needs, making AHL the third-largest gross producer of oil in the UK.

Overall, the Scott oil field development was a significant undertaking that showcased innovative approaches to rapid field development and efficient production in the challenging environment of the North Sea.