Region West of Shetland Offshore/onshore Offshore Start of development 1994 Partners BP, Marathon Oil | Blocks 204/19
204/24a Discovery October 1990 Start of production 1997 | |
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Country Scotland, United Kingdom Current production of oil 85,000 barrels per day (~4.2×10^ t/a) Recoverable oil 600 million barrels (~8.2×10^ t) | ||
Foinaven oil field is deepwater oil development approximately 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the Shetland Islands. Together with Schiehallion, Loyal, Solan, Clair and Lancaster fields it forms the area generally termed as the West of Shetland.
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Field descriptionEdit
Foinaven oil field was discovered in October 1990. It is located in blocks 204/19 and 204/24a of the United Kingdom Continental Shelf in a water depth of 400–600 metres (1,300–2,000 ft). Recoverable oil reserves of Foinaven are estimated to be between 250 and 600 million barrels (40,000,000 and 95,000,000 m3).
Although the location is described as in the continental shelf block, in practise Foinaven is the first development made beyond the actual reach of continental shelf.
ProductionEdit
The Foinaven field is operated by BP Exploration in partnership with Marathon Oil. The development of the field was sanctioned in 1994 and the oil production in Foinaven started in November 1997. The phase 1 with 21 wells was completed in 2000. It has the designed oil production capacity of 85,000 barrels per day (13,500 m3/d) of oil.
Oil is produced by subsea wells via a manifold, which passes through rigid flowlines and then flexible risers into a Floating Production Storage and Offloading system (FPSO). Surface process facilities consist of two parallel oil separation and gas compression trains with a combined liquid handling capacity of 145,000 barrels per day (23,100 m3/d) of crude oil and 114 million cubic feet per day (3.2×106 m3/d) of associated gas.
The FPSO, Petrojarl Foinaven, which is operated by Teekay Petrojarl, has an overall length of 240 metres (790 ft) and an oil storage capacity of 300,000 barrels (48,000 m3). It is permanently stationed in the field and the crude oil is exported by shuttle tankers. Oil is exported primarily to the Flotta oil terminal in Orkney with smaller amount is going to Tranmere Oil Terminal on Merseyside.
Approximately half of the produced associated gas is used for enhanced oil recovery of the field. Another half of natural gas is exported through the West of Shetland pipeline to the Sullom Voe Terminal. Some of the exported gas is used as fuel in the Fortum operated Sullom Voe power station. The remainder is enriched with liquefied petroleum gas and exported to the Magnus platform for enhanced oil recovery in Magnus field.