Oil and gas company Apache restarted production from its Forties field in the UK North Sea on Saturday, December 23, following a shutdown due to unscheduled maintenance of an onshore section of the Forties pipeline.
The Apache-operated Forties oil field is located 110 miles north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the UK sector of the Central North Sea.
The production from the Forties field has been shut down since December 11 when a crack in the Forties pipeline system, operated by Ineos, forced several North Sea operators to stop production from their North Sea fields which use the pipeline for oil and gas transport.
At the time, Apache said that production from its impacted operations was 35,800 net barrels of oil per day.
Following the completion of repair works on an onshore section of the Forties pipeline, announced by Ineos on Monday, the Forties field returned to production. Apache said it could take several days before production returns to pre-shut-in levels.
Ineos expects to bring the pipeline and Kinneil terminal and gas processing plant progressively back to normal rates early in the new year. The Kinneil facility has already been partially restarted. Flows through the pipeline will be increased gradually as Ineos proves the system.
Offshore Energy Today Staff