United Kingdom Oil and Gas Fields: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Volume

Geological Society Memoir 52 records the extraordinary journey of more than 50 years that has led to the development of some 458 oil and gas fields on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). It contains papers on almost 150 onshore and offshore fields in all of the UK's main petroliferous basins. These papers range from look-backs on some of the first-developed gas fields in the Southern North Sea, to papers on fields that have only just been brought into production or may still remain undeveloped, and includes two candidate CO2 sequestration projects.
These papers are intended to provide a consistent summary of the exploration, appraisal, development and production history of each field, leading to the current subsurface understanding which is described in greater detail. As such, the Memoir will be an enduring reference source for those exploring for, developing, producing hydrocarbons and sequestering CO2 on the UKCS in the coming decades. It encapsulates the petroleum industry's deep subsurface knowledge accrued over more than 50 years of exploration and production.
The Buchan Field, Blocks 20/5a and 21/1a, UK North Sea
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Published:October 30, 2020
Abstract
The Buchan Oilfield is a large mature field, now suspended, located in the Moray Firth. The field is situated 153 km NE of Aberdeen in water depths of c. 122 m. The reservoir comprises an overpressured and fractured Upper Devonian–Early Carboniferous fluvio-lacustrine sandstone. Production was via high permeability channel sandstones and permeable faults and fractures. The Buchan Field was brought onto production in May 1981 by BP Petroleum Development Ltd via the Buchan Alpha semi-submersible floating production vessel (FPV). The oil column is c. 2000 ft in height with a matrix stock tank oil initially in place (STOIIP) range of 322–471–668 MMbbl. Production from the ten vertical development wells was driven by pressure depletion (over 5000 psi since first oil) coupled with weak aquifer influx. Production from the Buchan Field ceased on 13 May 2017 after having produced 147.8 MMbbl. The Buchan FPV was subsequently taken off-station during August 2017. A new facility or tie-back redevelopment option will be required to access the remaining resources which are in the range of 20–90 MMbbl depending on the STOIIP, the production mechanism and the potential development plan.
- Atlantic Ocean
- Carboniferous
- Devonian
- Europe
- Famennian
- fluvial environment
- Frasnian
- Great Britain
- history
- Lower Carboniferous
- Moray Firth
- North Atlantic
- North Sea
- oil and gas fields
- paleoenvironment
- Paleozoic
- petroleum accumulation
- production
- reserves
- reservoir properties
- Scotland
- United Kingdom
- Upper Devonian
- Western Europe
- Chalk Group
- Buchan Field
- Moray Group
- Monrose Group