Graben Area Export Line
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The Graben Area Export Line (GAEL) is made up of two sections:
The Northern Spurline, a 75 km long 24-inch pipeline running from the base of the ETAP oil export riser via a wye (the connection of the Southern Spurline) located 3 km from ETAP to the base of a riser on the BP FPS Unity platform entry point to FPS. The Southern Spurline, a 38 km long 24-inch pipeline running from a subsea isolation valve assembly (SSIV) 250m from the Elgin Platform via a wye (the Southern Spurline wye assembly) located 2km from the SSIV to the wye on the Northern Spurline. The |
Shearwater platform is connected to the Southern Spurline wye assembly by an 8km pipeline. A further wye (the Shearwater wye) is located adjacent to the Southern Spurline wye assembly and has a spare leg available to future connections.
GAEL is operated by BP and currently transports unstabilised oil from the ETAP, Elgin/Franklin and Shearwater platforms to BP's FPS system (www.fortiespipeline.com). Subsequent transportation in FPS can ultimately lead to the delivery of Forties Blend at Hound Point and raw gas at Kinneil.
The Northern Spurline was commissioned in 1998 and the Southern Spurline in 2001. Both spurlines are in excellent condition having rigorous maintenance and inspection regimes and it is expected that GAEL will remain in service to at least 2030.
Both the Northern and Southern Spurlines are divided rights systems and each of the owners has a divided capacity right. Any third party interested in transporting oil through the either of the GAEL spurlines should contact:
- the System Operator (BP) for further technical information; and
- each of the owners to discuss commercial terms and availability of capacity in that owners divided capacity right.
The contacts in each company are as follows:
| BP (System Operator and capacity owner) |
Nigel Wooley
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|
Eni (Capacity owner) |
Maurice Barclay |
|
BG (Capacity owner) |
Mike Sturgeon |
|
Dyas (Capacity owner) |
Joost Ketting |
|
EFOG (Capacity owner) |
Richard Smith |
|
ExxonMobil (Capacity owner) |
Keith Matocha |
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Summit Petroleum (Capacity owner) |
Ryo Yanagisawa
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| E.ON Ruhrgas (Capacity owner) |
Lynne Cargill
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| Shell (Capacity owner) |
Gary Hughes
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| ChevronTexaco (Capacity owner) | Andrew Milne ChevronTexaco Seafield House Hill of Rubislaw Aberdeen AB16 5XL AndrewMilne@chevron.com |
