BP announces first oil from Alligin field, west of Shetland

BP, as operator and on behalf of co-venturer Shell, today announced encouraging early production from the Alligin field in the west of Shetland region, offshore UK.

Alligin forms part of the Greater Schiehallion Area and has been developed as a two-well subsea tieback into the existing Schiehallion and Loyal subsea infrastructure and the Glen Lyon floating, production, storage, offload (FPSO) vessel.

It is a 20 million barrels of oil equivalent field, which was originally forecast to produce 12,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak.

The project’s performance has been better than expected, however, reaching 15,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak since start-up in late December.

The development has included new subsea infrastructure, consisting of gas lift and water injection pipeline systems, and a new controls umbilical.

BP North Sea Regional President Ariel Flores said: “Achieving first oil from the Alligin field safely, under budget and ahead of schedule is testament to the performance of the project team and their agile approach to planning and execution. 

“Alligin is part of BP’s advantaged oil strategy, a development with a shorter project cycle time with oil that is economic to produce and low risk to bring to market. Subsea tiebacks like this complement our major start-ups and help underpin our growing portfolio west of Shetland.

Alligin (BP 50% operator; Shell 50%) is part of a series of infrastructure-led subsea tieback developments in the North Sea, accessing new production from fields located near to established producing infrastructure.

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• The Quad 204 project – a redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields west of Shetland – delivered first oil in May 2017. The project included the construction and installation of the Glen Lyon floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, a major upgrade and replacement of subsea facilities and an extensive drilling programme.
• In December 2018, BP increased its interest in the giant Clair field west of Shetland from 28.6% to 45.1%. The Clair field is being developed in phases – Clair Ridge, the second phase development, started up in November 2018, targeting 640 million barrels of oil and peak production of 120,000 barrels of oil a day. A third phase, Clair South, is under consideration. 
• The Vorlich subsea tieback is targeting 30 million barrels of oil equivalent and peak production of 20,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day. It will be tied back to Ithaca Energy’s FPF-1 floating production facility in the central North Sea and is due on stream in 2020.
• Seagull, another subsea tieback, will be developed through BP’s ETAP (Eastern Trough Area Project) hub in the central North Sea and is expected to initially produce around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. First oil from the project is expected in 2021.
• BP was awarded a new exploration licence in the 31st Offshore Licensing Round announced by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) in June. The BP-operated licence covers 10 blocks in Quadrant 209 in the west of Shetland area.

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