J.Kenneth Klitz
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
J. Kenneth Klitz i: ;,-_ .. ...... l~ t :. i \ NORTH SEA OIL RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE U.K. SECTOR From the first exploration wells in 1964 to virtual self sufficiency by 1980, the development of the U. K. North Sea oil fields has been rapid and productive. However, the hostile environment and the sheer scale of the operation have made heavy demands on both natural and human resources. Just how large has this investment of resources been? Has it been justified by the amount of energy recovered? What lessons does the development of the North Sea hold for operators of other offshore fields? Using an approach developed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, J. Kenneth Klitz attempts to answer these questions. He presents a wealth of detailed information obtained from exhaus tive Iiterature searches and close cooperation with the North Sea oil companies themselves, and uses it to in vestigate the resources needed to construct and operate the various field installations and facilities. From this starting point he then derives the total amounts of re sources required to develop first each field and then the entire U.K. sector. To put this resource expenditure in perspective, the author describes the way in which estimates of North Sea oil reserves have evolved and examines the addi tional yields that may be obtained by using technolog ically advanced oil-recovery methods; also included is an interesting comparison of the "energy economics" of producing either gas or oil from the North Sea. Finally, there are extensive descriptions of the U.K. oil fields currently in production or at advanced stages of development, giving details of reserves, production rates, and ownership, together with full information on the production platforms, storage facilities, and pipelines employed in each field. NORTH SEA OIL RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE U.K. SECTOR NORTH SEA OIL RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE U.K. SECTOR J. Kenneth Klitz PERGAMON PRESS OXFORD' NEW YORK' TORONTO' SYDNEY' PARIS' FRANKFURT U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 OBW, England U.S.A. Pergamon Press Inc.. Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523, U.S.A. CANADA Pergamon of Canada, Suite 104, 150 Consumers Road, Willowdale, Ontario M2J IP9, Canada AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (AuSL) Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 544, Potls Point, N.S.W. 2011, Australia FRAt\CE Pergamon Press SARL, 24 rue des Ecoles, 75240 Paris, Cedex 05. France FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH. (,242 Kronberg-Taunus, or GERMANY Hammerweg 6, Federal Republic of Germany The opinions expressed in this book are those of the author, and are not necessarily those of IIASA or the National Member Organizations that support it. Copyright © 1980 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherWise, without permission in writing from the publishers. First edition 1980 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Klitz, J Kenneth North Sea oil. 1. Offshore oil industry - North Sea 2. Petroleum in submerged lands - North Sea I. Title II. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis 333.8'2 HD9S7S.NS7 79-41017 ISBN 0 08 024442 4 Typeset by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, and printed by Novographic, Vienna, Austria Dedicated to SHANLEY CONTENTS Foreword ............................................... .. ix Preface. ................................................ .. xi Units and conversion factors ................................... .. xiii Introduction .... ........................................... 1 The WELMM approach 3 2 Resource requirements for development of the U.K. sector. ................ 7 Field development 7 Exploration and appraisal drilling 12 Platforms 13 Pipelines ............................................ .. 20 Total resource requirements for field development ................ .. 23 3 North Sea crude oil reserves ........................ .. 29 4 Potential for secondary and enhanced recovery in the North Sea ........... .. 35 Primary oil recovery .................................... .. 35 Secondary oil recovery 35 Enhanced oil recovery (tertiary production methods) 36 Analysis ofenergy requirements for secondary and tertiary production. .. .. 37 Conclusions. ......................................... .. 40 5 North Sea gas versus oil: resource requirements for development " 41 History ofLeman gas field ................................ .. 41 Comparison technique ................................... .. 43 Construction of facilities for Leman field 43 Resources needed to operate Leman field ...................... .. 44 Offshore oil versus gas ................................... .. 47 Conclusions. ......................................... .. 50 6 North Sea facility description and analysis. ......................... .. 51 Marine seismic surveying vessel .. ........................... .. 52 North Sea exploration well. ............................... .. 54 North Sea concrete platform. .............................. .. 60 North Sea steel platform 66 North Sea production well ................................ .. 72 Offshore oil and gas pipelines .. ............................ .. 80 Single-point mooring (SPM) ....................... .. 92 Flare vent ........................................... .. 96 vii 7 Description of the 23 U.K.-sector oil fields studied ................... .. 10 1 Argyll " 102 Auk ".................................... .. 107 Beatrice 112 Beryl A .. , 119 Brae. ............................................... 124 Brent ............................................. .. 129 Buchan. ........................................... .. 143 Claymore 149 Dunlin .. .......................................... .. 154 Forties ............................................ .. 159 Fu1mar .............................................. 169 Hutton. ............................................. 175 Magnus. ........................................... .. 180 Maureen ............................................. 186 Montrose 191 Murchison ............................................ 196 Ninian 204 North Cormorant ..................................... .. 211 North West Hutton. ................................... .. 215 Piper 219 South Cormorant ..................................... .. 224 Tartan 229 Thistle ...................................... 234 8 Summary 241 References 247 Bibliography ............................................ .. 249 Appendix: water requirements for concrete manufacture and for human use .. " 257 Index , 259 viii FOREWORD As part of a continuing program ofresearch into energy resources and strategies, the WELMM (Water, Energy, Land, Manpower, and Materials) approach has been developed at IIASA to provide a better understanding of the systems aspects of energy-resource exploitation and its interaction with the other main natural and human resources. A major part of any WELMM assessment is the collection of data, which are either widely spread through the available lit erature (generally resulting in a lack of coherence and consistency) or, even worse, not pub lished or not initially intended for publication. After the data have been gathered, checked, and made internally consistent, it is then possible to make more accurate comparisons of the resources required for various related schemes and to aggregate the data to show the overall requirements for any particular phase or project. This book describes the results of a WELMM regional case study of North Sea oil dis covery and production. From a technological point of view the development of the North Sea oil and gas fields is particularly interesting. It is a relatively recent and continuing process and it has several notable "frontier" aspects: production and exploration drilling are being carried out in deeper waters than ever before and this, in conjunction with the very difficult weather conditions in the area, has led to new design concepts for the steel or concrete plat forms employed. It is hoped that the large number of data collected here will demonstrate the interest of the WELMM approach and will be useful for future studies of energy strategies which rely on offshore oil and gas. Michel Grenon Task Leader IIASA Resources Group ix PREFACE This book presents the results of a study of the quantities of natural and human resources needed to develop the oil fields currently considered commercially viable in the U.K. sector of the North Sea. Using the WELMM approach developed at IIASA, the study attempts to investigate and quantify the amounts ofwater, energy, land, manpower, and materials required to construct and operate the different facilities in use in the fields or planned for future instal lation. Starting from this detailed information on each facility the data are aggregated to show the total amount of resources needed to develop first each field and then the entire U.K. sec tor. Further, the study shows where and when resources are expended during the develop ment of an offshore field and provides a quantitative comparison of the resource require ments for the various stages of development. Because the study gives detailed information on most of the facilities typically required to develop an offshore field, it is hoped that the results will