Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields

The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields are natural gas reservoirs and gas production facilities in two locations in the southern North Sea. The fields produced natural gas from 1995.

History edit

The Davy gas field was discovered as early as 1970 but there was limited local infrastructure to transport gas to shore.[1] The Bessemer and Beaufort fields were discovered in 1989 and 1991 by wells 49/23-5 and 49/23-7 respectively. The improved production technology in the late 1980s made the development of the fields viable. Technology included horizontal wells and minimum topsides facilities. Gas from the fields was routed to Indefatigable 49/23AT for compression.[1]  

The gas fields edit

The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields are located in the UK Offshore Blocks 49/30 and 53/05.[1] The fields were initially developed by Amoco, which merged with BP in 1998. Perenco assumed ownership in 2003 and were responsible for later developments. The fields are named after British and Irish scientists, engineers and inventors: namely Humphry Davy, Henry Bessemer, Francis Beaufort, Charles Brown and Robert Boyle.

The characteristics of the gas reservoirs and the production facilities are summarised in the table.[2][1][3][4][5]

Installation Davy Davy North Davy East Bessemer Beaufort Boyle Brown
UK Offshore Block 49/30 53/5a 49/30a 53/5b 49/23e 49/23 49/30 49/30
Coordinates 53.051969°N 3.011500°E 53.096661°N 2.843161°E 52.983394°N 2.974469°E 53.331961°N 2.508322°E
Gas reservoir Rotliegend variable isopach Rotliegend Leman sandstone As Davy
Field discovered 1970 1989 1991 1989 1998
Gas in place, billion cubic feet 164 90 30
Installation type Monotower Subsea wellhead Subsea wellhead Monotower Wellhead Wellhead Wellhead
Water depth, metres 34 34 41 28 29 34
Substructure weight, tonnes 794 780
Topsides weight, tonnes 513 481
No. of Wells 4 1 1 3 1 - drilled from Bessemer From Davy From Davy
Gas export to Inde 49/23AT Davy Davy Inde 49/23AT Davy Davy
Export pipeline length, diameter 42.37 km, 16-inch 10.31 km, 8-inch 5.71 km, 6-inch 15.59 km, 16-inch
Pipeline number PL1053 PL1871 PL2344 PL1055
Start of production 1995 2001 2007 1995 1996 2002 2001
Peak flow, million cubic metres/y 930 93 1,204 1 456 118
Year of peak flow 1996 2007 2000 2001 2003 2001
Cumulative production to end of 2014, million cubic metres 5,810 280 5,410 1 1,758 324

Gas production edit

Bessemer also receives gas from the N.W, Bell wellhead (49/23) via a 9.45 km, 6-inch pipeline.

The Davy and Bessemer installations export gas to the Indefatigable 49/23AT platform which has reception facilities for the 16-inch pipelines from Davy and Bessemer. After processing the gas is routed, along with Inde gas, to the Bacton gas terminal.

The gas production profile, in mcm/y, for Davy is as shown.

The gas production profile, in mcm/y, for Bessemer is as shown.

Production from Davy North and Beaufort has ceased.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Littler, Adrian N.; Kearney, Carroll; Schultz, Mike; Hennington, Eric; Parsons, Pete (1996). "Marginal Gas Field Developments in the Southern North Sea: Davy and Bessemer: A case study". onepetro.org. doi:10.2118/36873-MS. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  2. ^ "The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort and Brown Fields". mem.lyellcollection.org. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Oil and Gas UK – Field data". www.gov.uk/guidance. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Inventory of Offshore Installations". odims.ospar.org. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  5. ^ "OGA interactive Maps". ogauthority.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.