Environmental Statement - Maersk Oil

Balloch Field Development Environmental Statement
Section 2 Proposed Development
2.2. DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
Figure 2‐4 Cross section of the Balloch reservoir.
The development concept for the Balloch field is a subsea tie back to the GPIII FPSO which currently
serves the Donan and Lochranza fields. This is a viable option given the proximity of the Balloch field
to the FPSO and the opportunity to combine the tieback with that of the Donan and Lochranza fields.
A tieback of the Balloch field to other installations in the area would incur a greater use of resources
and increased seabed impacts.
Three initial development options, along with the do nothing option, were evaluated (Table 2‐2).
Table 2‐2 Development options considered for Balloch.
Development Options Summary
Do nothing Drilling and subsea infrastructure not required.
Subsea Options
1
Short (~80 m) step out from DC2 manifold with cooling spools to meet DC2
design temperature requirements.
2 Long (~1.7 km) step out from DC2 manifold with cooling spools.
3 New Balloch template/flowline tied back to GPIII with new riser.
The Options were compared using the following criteria:
Value (NPV, CAPEX);
Volumetric (Reserves, Shutdown losses);
Schedule (First Oil, Impact to FPSO economic limit);
Hazard (ALARP & regulatory compliance, Execution risk).
Due to the socio‐economic benefits of the Balloch field development, including reducing UK imports
of hydrocarbons and providing revenue to the Exchequer, the do nothing option was screened out at
an early stage. Unlike option three, options one and two utilise the existing Donan DC2 production
manifold and PL2662 13.5 ” production flowline. Brief summaries of the three options are provided
below.
2‐5