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 Goldeneye Field, Blocks 14/29a and 20/4b, UK North Sea Available to Purchase
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Published:October 30, 2020
Abstract
The Goldeneye gas-condensate field lies in the Moray Firth Basin in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) approximately 100 km off the NE coast of Scotland. The field was discovered in 1996 as a normally pressured accumulation with estimated gas-initially-in-place (GIIP) of 810 bcf with a thin oil rim in the Lower Cretaceous Captain Sandstone Member in a three-way, dip-closed structure. Field development included five production wells, with first gas achieved in 2004. Goldeneye was steadily produced under moderate aquifer support until cessation of production (COP) in 2010 following water breakthrough at the wells. Over its lifetime Goldeneye has produced 568 bcf of gas and 23 MMbbl of condensate.
Around the time of COP, the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Commercialisation Competition was announced, and Goldeneye was evaluated as a candidate. The removal of significant volumes of hydrocarbons through production left remaining capacity that could be refilled without reservoir pressure significantly exceeding virgin conditions. However, following withdrawal of funding from the UK Government in 2015, the project was put on hold. Since then additional subsurface work has been conducted to support the successful abandonment of the development wells, which had previously been suspended since 2010.
- Atlantic Ocean
- condensates
- continental shelf
- Cretaceous
- Europe
- Great Britain
- history
- hydrocarbons
- Lower Cretaceous
- Mesozoic
- Moray Firth
- North Atlantic
- North Sea
- oil and gas fields
- oil wells
- organic compounds
- petroleum
- petroleum accumulation
- petroleum exploration
- production
- reservoir properties
- Scotland
- traps
- United Kingdom
- Western Europe
- Chalk Group
- Humber Group
- Cromer Knoll Group
- Moray Group
- Fladen Group
- Goldeneye Field
- Captain Sandstone Member