Shell produces first gas from North Sea field

Oil major Shell has started production from a gas and condensate field located in the UK North Sea, through a tieback to its Shearwater hub.

Following reports that Shell has started production from the Arran gas and condensate field, Offshore Energy has reached out to Shell, seeking confirmation and further details about the project.

A spokesperson for Shell confirmed that the field had started production in September 2021 but revealed no other details.

Arran is a gas condensate field located in the central North Sea approximately 240 km east of Aberdeen and approximately 3 km from the United Kingdom/Norway median line.

Shell became the operator of the Arran project and made a final investment decision (FID) in October 2018. The project is part of Shell’s strategy to grow its central North Sea production around the Shearwater hub.

The field was developed with four new wells and the natural gas and liquids they produce will be transported via a newly installed subsea pipeline to the Shearwater platform.

Offshore contractor Subsea 7 was in charge of the project management, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of 60 kilometres of mechanically lined pipe-in-pipe production flowline, together with subsea structures and tie-ins at the Arran and Columbus gas condensate fields and the Shearwater platform.

Subsea 7 was awarded this contract, worth between $100 million and $200 million, back in May 2019.

At peak production, Arran is expected to produce around 100 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and 4,000 barrels per day of condensate, which combined equates to 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Another project related to Arran is also scheduled to start production soon. This is Serica Energy’s Columbus project. Serica achieved successful flow test results from the Columbus development well in July 2021 after which operations to tie the subsea wellhead into the Arran field export system were scheduled to start.

The Columbus start-up is planned for 4Q 2021. Once it has been brought on stream, it is anticipated that the Columbus well will produce at around 7,000boe/d (gross) of which at least 75 per cent is expected to be gas.

The update on the Arran gas field comes as Shell is working on another planned tieback to the Shearwater platform, the Jackdaw field. As reported earlier in October, the UK’s Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning did not approve Shell’s proposed development plan for the Jackdaw field.

Following the regulator’s decision, Shell proposed changes to the project, prompting the regulator to ask for further information about the proposed changes.

According to the regulator’s letter on 14 October 2021, further information should address any differences that the proposed changes may make to the impact of the project on climate – for example, the nature and magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions – and any features of the project or measures envisaged in order to avoid, prevent, reduce or offset likely significant effects on the environment.

Located about 250 km east of Aberdeen and 30 km south-east of the Shearwater platform in the North Sea, the Jackdaw is an ultra-high pressure / high temperature (uHPHT) gas condensate field, which was planned to be developed via a new wellhead platform (WHP) tied back to Shell’s existing Shearwater host platform. Some minor modifications to the host platform were planned as part of the project.