BP NSI | West Sole

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West Sole

The West Sole field was discovered in September 1965 in acreage licensed to BP in the first UK licensing round. The field lies 70 kilometers off the East Yorkshire coast, in block 48/6, in approximately 28 meters of water covering an expanse 19 kilometers long by 5 kilometers wide.

This discovery marked the beginning of a period of gas field developments in the Southern North Sea, which within a decade were supplying almost all of Britain's gas.

The original development plan called for:

Two fixed steel production platforms - West Sole 'A' (WA) and West Sole 'B' (WB), with facilities to dry the water-saturated gas.
70 kilometer, 16-inch diameter pipeline from the field to a shore terminal at Easington, 40 kilometers east of Hull.

By spring of 1968 four production wells had been drilled from WA, and six from WB. In 1969 the six-well production platform WC was installed: and in 1974 the satellite platform WAS was connected to WA and two further wells drilled.
In 1978, the WE platform was removed after eleven years in production. This was the first North Sea platform to be decommissioned.

By 1980, West Sole production was in decline due to a combination of the drop in reservoir pressure and low gas prices which deterred further capital investment. Following negotiations over the gas price, the West Sole Gas Compression Project was undertaken to improve gas recovery, and involved the installation of gas compression facilities and additional electrical power generation plant onshore at Easington: the laying of a new 24-inch pipeline from WB to Easington to handle the lower pressure gas: and associated modifications to all three platforms.

Produced gas is discharged into a three phase separation process. The saturated gas is separated into gas, condensate and water. The separated clean water is discharged into the sea. To avoid formation of hydrate, threshold hydrate inhibitor,(THI), is injected into the gas/condensate just prior to the sealine manifold.

In 1988, a major programme of modifications, i.e. the 60m pounds West Sole Modifications Project, commenced to improve platform facilities and comply with new legislation particularly in respect of accommodation, fire protection and utilities and in 1991 one additional well was drilled on WA platform.

Currently there are three satellite fields: Newsham, Hyde and Hoton are exporting their production through West Sole. Potential future developments can tie back to West Sole or alternatively depending on the situation they may be able to tie back to Hoton, Newsham or Hyde. In certain circumstances subject to the availability of blend gas it may be possible to offer transportation and processing service for gas outside the normal entry specification.

Two third party fields Babbage and Seven Seas are currently being tied back to West Sole.

[Babbage 1st Gas 1Q 2010

Seven 1st Gas 4Q 2009]

Newsham

Newsham is a small gas field east of West Sole field, developed by subsea tie back to WA 6 kilometers away. Production was initially from a single horizontal well sidetracked from an appraisal well. Production started around 18 months from sanction date. Subsea manifold installed for two wellheads: expected life is 10 years.

Hoton

The Hoton field was discovered in 1976 at 2,940m below the sea bed. Development of the field was started in November 2000 with drilling commencing in July 2001. The development involved re-completing the existing well (48/7b - 12) and side tracking it to create a dual lateral well.

A normally unmanned facilities platform was constructed and tied back to the existing West Sole 24-inch pipeline system via a 12km, 8 inch diameter pipeline. The platform is powered via an umbilical connected to the manned West Sole WA platform. Installation of the platform began in July 2001 with first gas in December 2001. Control of the platform is from the Dimlington terminal via West Sole Alpha. The pipeline enters the Easington terminal where it passes through to Dimlington for gas conditioning.

Hyde

The Hyde field is located in four blocks, 48/6, 47/10, 47/5a and 48/1 with the core of the field and the three horizontal producing wells in block 48/6. Hyde was the first BP operated gas field in the Southern North Sea to be developed using horizontal wells. First gas commenced in 1993, with two wells and a third horizontal well (48/6-37) was drilled in 1994.

Production from Hyde and NW West Sole is processed and metered at the surface facilities on the Hyde platform and then flowed into the West Sole system via a 12.5 km, 14-inch pipeline .

Hyde was developed in a joint venture between BP 55% and Statoil 45%. BP bought out Statoil's 45% share in January 1997 in exchange for BP's equity in the Jupiter gas field. This transaction gave BP 100% control of the West Sole gas transportation and processing system.