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The highlight was undoubtedly BP’s giant Clair field situated approximately 75 km west of Shetland. The field was originally
discovered in 1977 but development was delayed by technical and economic reasons. By the end of 2005 over 4.83 million
barrels of oil and 1.31 billion cubic feet of gas had been produced from the field. It is estimated that 250 million barrels of oil are
recoverable from the first part (Phase I) of the field development.
Decommissioning of surface installations associated with exhausted fields is becoming more common and is often an enormous
undertaking. For example, Shell’s Indefatigable gasfield in the southern North Sea, which came on stream in October 1971, is
approaching the end of its economic life. Twenty-six wells, 21 km of pipelines within the immediate field area and five platforms
will have to be dismantled and/or made safe. The platform weights, when installed, exceeded 13 500 tonnes. Other fields where
decommissioning is planned are BP’s North-west Hutton and Total’s Frigg (UK part).
Exploration
Six onshore exploration wells were started in 2005, twice the number for 2004 and the highest since 2002. Two appraisal wells
were also drilled (zero in 2004). However no onshore discoveries were made in 2005 and none have been made since the
Avington 2 (Hampshire) discovery well in 2003.
Offshore, 41 exploration wells were spudded (the highest number since 1998) with 25 being in the Central North Sea. None was
started west of Shetland for the first time in many years. There were seven significant discoveries:
BG, Century, Nexen and Talisman drilled more exploration wells than other companies, followed closely by Apache, Burlington
and ConocoPhillips. The Finlaggan discovery (well 21/5a-6Z) proved a 169 ft hydrocarbon column in Lower Cretaceous sands.
Thirty-seven appraisal wells (the highest number since 1996) were spudded, 21 of which were in the Central North Sea.
Licensing
Field name Field type Discovery well Date on stream operator
Brechin Oil 22/23a-7 June Paladin
Carnoustie Oil 22/17-T2 February Talisman
Clair Oil 206/8-1A February BP
Farragon Oil 16/28-17 November BP
Gadwall Oil 21/19-6 April Venture
Pict Oil 21/23b-1 June Petro
Canada
Rhum Oil 3/29a-2 December BP
Annabel Gas 48/10a-12 April Venture
Forvie Gas 3/15-9a December Total
Horne Gas 53/3c-3 June Tullow
Munro Gas 44/17b-7 August BG
Saturn Gas 48/10b-3 September
ConocoPhillips Wren Gas 53/3c-6 June Tullow
Well hydrocarbon operator at time Date of discovery
type of discovery
13/23b-5Z Oil Talisman September
21/5a-6 Oil ConocoPhillips November
21/5a-6Z Oil ConocoPhillips November
22/6a-14Z Oil Apache July
22/15-3 Oil/Gas BG December
43/25a-2W Gas GdF May
44/23b-11 Gas ConocoPhillips September
In January the DTI published a new listing of fallow blocks and discoveries. This sixth release added 67 new fallow blocks and
23 new fallow discoveries to the list. The idea of this ongoing process is to force companies to either explore further, develop or
relinquish acreage which they hold but on which they have not undertaken significant recent work.
In March the DTI announced that a total of 1329 blocks would be open for companies to apply for licences in the 23rd Offshore Oil and
Gas Licensing Round. This would include the whole of the North Sea and the west of Shetland area. ‘Frontier’ licences would be available
in the west of Shetland area and ‘promote’ licences elsewhere in the North Sea. These two licence types include additional incentives to
find oil and gas in new regions. Traditional licences would be available everywhere. Applications should be lodged by 9th June.
A total of 134 applications was received (seven frontier, 60 promote and 67 traditional) for 279 blocks. This involved 114
companies of which 28 were new applicants to the North Sea. Following interviews with the companies, and some rationalisation
of the applications, the results of the round were announced in September. A record 152 licences (six frontier, 76 promote and 70
traditional) for 264 blocks were offered to 99 companies, 24 of which were new to the North Sea. The previous highest number
of licences offered in a round was 118 in the 4th offshore round in 1972. Hence the 23rd round was regarded as a great success
although firm commitments had only been received for 17 wells.
The year also saw 102 offshore licences, affecting 140 blocks or part blocks, surrendered either on a voluntary or mandatory basis.
There was no onshore licence round in 2005 as the DTI commenced a Strategic Environmental Assessment of the possible
onshore hydrocarbon prospective areas of the UK. An announcement concerning the start of the next (13th) onshore round is
planned for late Summer or Autumn 2006.
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