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STORY
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS IN THE SOUTHERN NORTH SEA
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Foreword The Fortieth Anniversary of West Sole is a great occasion for the UK and for BP. Forty years is a long time. In 1965, I was seventeen years old. Harold Wilson was Prime Minister. The oil price was less than three dollars a barrel. The Brent marker didn’t exist. And the market value of BP was £928 million.
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In 1965, gas was available only to a few people in the UK -
local economies which continue to thrive because of it, and
primarily to those who lived in cities or large towns. It was
for the fact that forty years on, we are still producing gas and
converted from coal. Those of us who remember it also
supplying this cleanest of fuels to UK homes and industry.
remember the particles it gave off when it was burned, the pollution, the smog and most famously of all, the London
So I offer my warm congratulations to every one of you who
‘pea-soupers’. It certainly was not a clean fuel.
has helped over the last forty years to make West Sole such a memorable part of BP’s history. Thanks also to the
The discovery of gas in the North Sea changed all that.
members of the communities who have shown BP such
Not only did it lead to a revolution in domestic gas central
strong support over such a long time, and to the local and
heating for nearly everyone; it also helped to transform the
national policy-makers who enabled the success.
country’s reliance on coal and oil imports. To quote BP’s Chairman at the time, Sir Maurice Bridgeman, And of course, it was the discovery of gas in the Southern
in the company’s Annual Report for 1965: “The most
North Sea which led four years later to the discovery of oil
important event of the year for BP was our discovery of gas
further north and the opening up of one of the world’s most
under the North Sea”.
significant oil provinces. A province which remains an important part of the BP portfolio now and will be for many
Little did he, or any of us, appreciate at the time just how
years to come, and one with which I have had a deep
significant it was.
personal association all of my career. Lord Browne, BP Group Chief Executive West Sole will not only be remembered for being first. It will also be remembered for the skills and dedication of the people who built and ran the platforms in the Southern North Sea. They were real pioneers. And I pay tribute to those of you who count yourselves in that number. It will also be remembered for the jobs which it created, for the
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“West Sole was our first field in the North Sea; it is still pioneering new technology today, and it will do so for many years to come.” Jeff Hoyle, West Sole, Amethyst & Ravenspurn Field Operations Manager
Did You Know…?
BP_West Sole Actual
Natural gas, which replaced town gas following the discovery of West Sole, is predominantly methane (approx 92%) and ethane (approx 6%), with small quantities of higher hydrocarbons. Natural gas revolutionised energy consumption in the UK, as it became available for both domestic and industrial use.
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Sea Gem
Did You Know…?
Key news events in the year of West Sole discovery (1965), included: the death of Winston Churchill, the introduction of the drink-drive limit, Ronald Biggs’ escape from jail, Gemini V’s return to earth after its record-breaking eight-day orbit of the earth, and Rhodesia’s break from the UK.
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Dash for Gas On September 30, 1965, the BP jack-up drilling barge Sea Gem made British history with a gas strike in Block 48/6, seventy kilometres off the East Yorkshire coast. BP had discovered West Sole – a field so rich in its yield that forty years on, it is now believed to be only two-thirds through its life; a field that spearheaded the Southern Basin ‘dash for gas’, setting an economically exhilarating precedent for Britain to relax its reliance on coal as its main fuel and achieve domestic self-sufficiency in the supply of gas to our homes and industries. With the legal and political framework in place following the allocation of the UK’s first round of oil and gas exploration licences in September 1964, BP’s long-anticipated discovery of the country’s first offshore hydrocarbons in the Southern North Sea, couldn’t have been more timely. Yet, for Sea Gem Derrickman Kevin Topham and his Drilling colleagues, the momentous gas strike by the converted barge was ‘business as usual’. Kevin, who had previously drilled for gas in twenty-six UK counties and worked at BP Duke’s Wood onshore oilfield, in Eakring, Nottinghamshire, explains: “We all had ten or fifteen years of onshore drilling experience and so we didn’t feel any differently from when we’d struck gas before. For us, it was as ordinary as going into a shop and buying something. We just thought: ‘that’s it we’ve struck gas’. There was no jumping up and down for joy. Of course, we didn’t realise the extent to which that well would be utilised…that it would still be running forty years later!”
For many of the drillers, the West Sole story began the previous year, with the assembly of the Sea Gem derrick and associated pumpwork, at BP’s Duke’s Wood onshore oilfield. “We practised running the equipment into one of the wells there and then it was taken down in pieces like a Meccano set, painted with red lead to withstand the North Sea salt, and transported down to Smith’s Dock, in Middlesborough, where the whole rig was being put together,” Kevin remembers. “Down there, we lived on the rig accommodation, which was very up-to-date. We spent several weeks helping to re-erect the derrick and the pumpwork, and then brought on board all the stores, pipework, drilling mud, and the like.” Unfortunately, Kevin’s eagerness to turn his hand to anything at the dock did not go down well with some of the workforce: “The unions were very strict about the types of jobs people could and couldn’t do. I made the mistake of picking up a cutting torch and it caused an uproar. A whole lot of women welders in leather aprons downed their tools because of me. You can be sure we drillers were very careful from then on!” Offshore at last, the Sea Gem and her crew settled into the task of tapping in to the promising geology of the Southern North Sea. A few months later - after they had succeeded in pushing the drilling limits to 11,000 feet - the field that was to become West Sole was discovered.
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Did You Know…? The West Sole platforms’ first accommodation module was made of wood, including wood-framed windows!
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The good news was short-lived. Three months later, on Boxing Day, 1965, tragedy struck. The Sea Gem capsized in rough seas, with the loss of thirteen members of her crew. The toll reached fourteen the following day, with the death of one of the survivors. A BBC Radio news report at the time described the rescue of the nineteen survivors from the freezing water in the words of RAF helicopter winchman, Flight Sergeant John Reeson, who was later decorated for his bravery with the George Cross: “There were waves fifteen to twenty feet high. I went down the winch line to men…who had been in the water an hour or two before we got there. One man hanging on to a life raft clutched me with a grip of iron…it was almost impossible to pick him up, but I managed it. He was desperate.”
Kevin never went offshore again and after several months of working onshore with BP, joined the Central Electricity Generating Board. But he has never lost touch with his West Sole Drilling colleagues, and as an energetic member of the BP Society, regularly organises reunion events to commemorate those early days.
“We made history back then,” he explains quietly. “That first strike had its repercussions, with the loss of life, which we will never forget. But it’s important to go on and to not stand still.”
A public inquiry later concluded that metal fatigue in the suspension system linking the hull to the legs, was to blame. “The rig seemed safe enough, but evidently it wasn’t,” says Kevin, who had been lying reading in his bunk when the Sea Gem started to capsize. Today, he is philosophical about the tragedy: “I had been in a few hot spots in the Armed Forces, and this was another one of those sequences of events that you had to get through. I remember it very clearly, of course. Some people still have nightmares about it, I’m told - but I don’t.”
Sea Gem Derrickman Kevin Topham
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“Many years ago, the local Women’s Institute felt sorry for the poor guys who had to work offshore at Christmas, so they arranged to be brought out to West Sole by supply boat. They pulled up alongside Alpha platform and started singing Christmas carols. The OIM made everybody come out on deck to listen, whether they wanted to, or not!” Peter McAllister, Electrical Technician
West Sole Alpha
Did You Know…?
Key news events in the year of West Sole first gas (1967), included: the Apollo I tragedy, the running aground of the Torrey Canyon supertanker between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles, Sir Francis Chichester’s celebrated homecoming from his pioneering solo yacht trip around the globe, the launch of the QE2, and an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in England and Wales.
West Sole Bravo
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Groundbreaking Developments Two years after the loss of the Sea Gem, drilling recommenced in the West Sole field, this time by a purpose-built giant, the Sea Quest. BP’s new 7,500-tonne semi-submersible drilling rig was built at the Harland and Wolf Shipyard, in Belfast. In October 1970, Sea Quest was to secure a place in the history books as the drilling rig that struck first oil in the North Sea, in BP’s Forties Field. But in 1967, it was drilling West Sole gas that was the focus for her operator, SEDCO. The initial field development involved two fixed platforms, West Sole Alpha (WA) and West Sole Bravo (WB); a 70km, 16-inch diameter pipeline to the shore; a terminal to receive the gas and condensate at Easington, 40km east of Hull, and a telemetry/communication system which enabled the terminal control room to monitor and control the two platforms. The development of West Sole broke new ground, demanding new engineering and construction skills in the fabrication and installation of its platform and subsea pipeline facilities. With no North Sea prototype, the platform design was based on that of the installations operating in the Gulf of Mexico - a fact which explained some rather out of context equipment, which amused the early crew members: “The platforms arrived in the field complete with air conditioning and mosquito nets – not exactly essential requirements for the Southern North Sea!” says former West Sole Roustabout/Production Assistant (1969) Mike Welton, whose father-in-law, the late Arthur Clubley, was one of the original WA crew.
The telemetry system itself was also leading-edge; for the new Easington Terminal operators, it was a space-age experience: “It was enormous – it took up the whole of one wall and was operated by dozens of push-buttons, which could open and close the wells. It actually wasn’t as complicated to operate as it looked, but behind the scenes there were miles and miles of cables,” remembers Mike, who transferred onshore in 1969 and worked at the Terminal in a variety of production roles for the next thirty-three years. The original system was replaced by a Westinghouse telemetry system during the 1980s, but its pioneering place in North Sea history has been duly recognised in a display at the Science Museum, in London. On March 6, 1967 - eight months after WA began drilling its production wells - the first North Sea natural gas came ashore. A local newspaper cutting from the time reported: “Today’s news came only 18 months after BP became the first company to strike it rich in the North Sea’s gas rush. Since then, in the fastest operation of its kind, BP has spent more than £20,000,000 in exploration, drilling and installations.” Development moved on apace and by 1968, WA had four production wells; WB had six; Easington Terminal was fully operational, and a single-well production platform, WE, had been installed.
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Mike Welton
Easington Terminal
Did You Know…?
West Sole Echo (WE) was the first North Sea
platform to be decommissioned, in 1978.
Kenny Mudd, Electrical Technician
bit small. We soon found out why - it turned out to be a toilet cistern.”
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“The crane hydraulics were contaminated and a flushing unit was ordered
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Mike Welton still has vivid memories of his occasional trips to WE:
“The first time I went there, I couldn’t imagine how the helicopter was going to be able to land on such a tiny installation. “Of course, it landed all right, but then you’d have to wait for it to take off, open a trapdoor in the helipad, and climb down on to the platform. I used to take plenty of sandwiches with me in case the helicopter was delayed in picking me up. There was a small shelter on WE, which was stocked up in case you got fogged in. There was tinned water, self-heating soup, a pack of dominoes, a pack of cards and a couple of books – one had the last page missing, I remember.” West Sole continued to expand through the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the installation of the six-well production platform, West Sole Charlie (WC), in 1969, and the two-well satellite platform, WAS, connected to WA in 1974. While the platforms were originally intended to be unmanned, it was found that having maintenance crews based on platforms WA, WB and WC (assigned in 1972), significantly reduced plant shutdown time. The manning status of the platforms was to change again in the late 1990s, with the de-manning of WB and WC and, as described later in this brochure, the introduction of a dynamic new way of working in the field. By 1975, West Sole was playing a key role in the country’s economic success, supplying almost all of Britain’s gas. But its quiet reliability was somewhat eclipsed by noisy excitement further North, where the Sea Quest’s oil strike in the Forties field was establishing Aberdeen as BP’s main centre of operations.
In 1978, however, Britain’s first gas field made history again, with WE becoming the first North Sea platform to be decommissioned. BP had decided that a workover of the eleven-year-old WE well was uneconomic. As part of the decommissioning process, the jacket was removed and examined for corrosion and stress, the results revealing it to be in remarkably good condition and providing useful lessons for the design of future North Sea developments. Major Projects By 1980, West Sole was in a production decline due to a combination of the drop in reservoir pressure and low gas prices, which for a time discouraged further capital investment. However, prospects brightened again following negotiations over the gas price, and in August of that year, the West Sole Gas Compression Project got the green light to bring about enhanced gas recovery in the field. The £70 million project took three years to complete and involved the installation of gas compression facilities and additional electrical power generation plant at Easington; a new 24-inch pipeline from WB to Easington, to handle the lower pressure gas, and associated modifications to all three platforms. The expansion at Easington Terminal brought in many more new faces, some local and some from other parts of the UK and overseas. By 1985, the Terminal’s original team of eight had increased to seventy-two. Offshore, the West Sole organisation comprised eight BP managers, twenty-one BP Maintenance staff and six catering contractor personnel.
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Did You Know‌? West Sole satellites Hyde and Hoton, together with fellow SNS fields Ravenspurn and Cleeton, are named after Yorkshire villages which disappeared during the fourteenth century as a result of coastal erosion.
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In March 1984, West Sole Alpha celebrated the production of one trillion cubic feet of gas, which at the time was quoted as: “enough gas to supply the gas requirements of Greater Manchester and Merseyside for eight years”. Curiously, the milestone, which coincided with the Tenth Anniversary of first oil from the Forties Field, was marked by the release of a record – a floppy 45 by ‘The North Sea Gas Folk Trio’ on which was recorded the legendary songs, ‘North Sea Gas’ and ‘Black, Black Gold’. Despite the fact that everyone in BP received a copy, the record never made it to Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart. Nor is there any chance of a re-release. On a more serious note, by 1988, the industry-wide health and safety ramifications of the Piper Alpha tragedy had prompted another major improvement programme – the £60 million West Sole Modifications Project – which upgraded the platform facilities in compliance with new legislation governing accommodation, fire protection and utilities.
“In th e days when we we allowe re d to fi sh from (and the pla if ther tform e was a could nythin chang gI e abou bring t West back f Sole, I ishing ’d !), we hold c would ompet itions which compe got ve titive ry indee d.
One d ay, I w as ree ling in after c The major projects of the 1980s were followed by the od, bu cod t the p development of the Newsham, Hyde and Hoton satellite ile bes never ide m seeme fields between 1996 and 2001 (see Fact Files). Together, e d to g et big these advances played a key part in securing a healthy field Then, g er. from t life for West Sole into the 21st Century – a life that is now he cor ner of I noti expected to last until at least 2022. my eye ced a cod ri , sing i air. I nto th looked e up an d saw roommy mate on the level a he wa s hook bove – ing th em ou my ca t of tch!” Stuart W ylie, Ope rations D evelopm ent Adv iser
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“When I came to the field, I thought I’d get one or two trips if I was lucky. Five years on, I’m still here!” Peter McAllister, Electrical Technician
Did You Know…?
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In 1982, during the pipelay of the Easington-Saltend gas condensate pipeline - a project carried out to the highest environmental standards just one tree was removed along the entire 26km route. The route, which crosses agricultural land, is regularly monitored to ensure against any drainage or crop regeneration problems.
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West Sole Today During the 25-minute helicopter hop from Humberside to the West Sole field, the passenger has a perfect overview of BP’s Gas operations. Today, West Sole is part of the SNS Performance Unit (PU), and delivers 30% of BP’s equity gas in the Southern North Sea.
All gas and condensate received at Easington Terminal is processed at Dimlington, following commissioning of the Terminal Integration Project, in 2001. West Sole gas is produced 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is traded by BP in the gas market. Dynamic Organisation The SNS Performance Unit is managed from BP's Exploration & Production North Sea Headquarters, in Aberdeen. Easington Terminal operations comes under the TAPS (Terminals and Pipelines) Performance Unit, again managed from Aberdeen.
In the field, there are now six producing installations - WA, which can be unmanned; WB and WC, which were de-manned in July 1998, following a facilities simplification programme; Hyde and Hoton, which are Normally Unattended Installations (NUIs), and Newsham, a subsea tieback to WA. Gas processing on the platforms involves simplified processes, limited to primary water and gas separation only. WA produces into the 16” line to Easington Terminal. There is then an offtake from the WA line to WB, whereby WA gas goes over the WB topsides and is co-mingled with WB gas, and is then exported through the 24” pipeline, via a subsea template. Hoton and WC gas is also fed into the subsea template (Hyde gas flows into the WC line, before joining the template). WB also houses the sphere launcher. Spheres, or ‘pigs’, are used to clean the pipeline to Easington Terminal.
SNS PU is responsible for eighteen gas production platforms and ten subsea developments. In addition to West Sole, SNS delivers large volumes of gas through the Villages system (via the Cleeton platform), from Ravenspurn North, Johnston, Ravenspurn South, Wollaston, Whittle and British Gas’s ECA development. Additionally, Amethyst exports gas to the Centrica Easington Terminal. SNS produces three-quarters of a billion cubic feet of gas per day, delivering in the region of 10% of the UK’s gas. Offshore, responsibility for the overall West Sole, Amethyst and Ravenspurn area lies with the Field Offshore Installation Manager (OIM), based on the Ravenspurn North platform. West Sole Alpha is the base for a core Operations Team and for two Campaign Teams, which maintain the West Sole, Hyde, Hoton and Amethyst installations. The platform is usually manned by a crew of around eighteen personnel. Backing up the Campaign Teams are four teams, who typically fly out from the beach to carry out other activities, such as well surveillance, major maintenance works, fabric maintenance and production improvement projects.
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“I’ve worked in the West Sole field since 1993, spending time on WA, WB and WC. My father has worked here since 1972 – both my brother and I followed him into the industry.” Michael Owen, Operations Technician
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Maintenance of the Villages NUIs is carried out from the Cleeton platform by a separate Campaign Maintenance Team. This highly-efficient organisation is the result of a radical restructuring exercise in early 2003, which introduced a full programme of Campaign Maintenance into the area to bring greater focus to plant and equipment integrity. West Sole OIM Steve Jude (opposite) explains that the offshore roles were re-designed to encourage improved efficiency, shared learning, safety enhancement and multi-tasking. A comprehensive recruitment and training programme was put in place and a new generation of multi-discipline and multi-functional teams entered the field. “We recruited some very skilled people who had been working with other operators, and they’ve been able to share a lot of new ideas and different approaches to the way we do maintenance, which has really made a difference,” he says. Paul adds: “We now have a mix of around 70% agency and 30% BP personnel, but everybody is treated the same. We’re a fully integrated team and we all depend on each other.” Health & Safety Excellence Paul and Steve believe that the inter-dependency and trust achieved by working effectively as a multi-tasking team, have greatly contributed to West Sole’s excellent safety record, which, in the month of the field’s Fortieth Anniversary (September 2005), had reached nine years without a lost time incident.
“Safety has number one priority in everything we do. As a team, we’re very happy to talk about safety and to find out better ways of working safely, and that includes conversations between ourselves and with people visiting the platform. We’re always open to new perspectives on safety and we’ve made use of some great ideas, as a result of listening to others,” says Paul. Added to the mix are BP’s safety ‘tools’ - the world class systems, practices and procedures used globally to promote safety excellence both offshore and onshore – as well as the team’s own fierce pride in their achievement and their strong determination to both sustain it and improve on it in any way they can. “We are proud to be leading the way, but we’re also very aware how easily that status can be lost. As a result, we’re more focused than ever on safety. Absolutely no one wants to start on the first rung again,” says Paul. At Easington Terminal, Site Manager Mike Thompson says: “We plan to continue building on our excellent safety record of nearly nine years without a DAFWC (day away from work case). The Terminal Team is always looking for innovative ways of better working, and delivering operational excellence.” Environmental Leadership BP’s goal is to be a leading company in the pursuit of best practice in environmental performance, through ‘No accidents, No harm to people and No damage to the environment’. The SNS onshore terminals and offshore platforms are located in areas of special environmental interest, particularly with regard to marine life, sea and estuarine bird populations, coastal geology, and sensitive habitats such as saline lagoons, mud and sand flats, salt marshes and sand dunes.
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“One of the great things about working
here is the amount of wildlife around you can often see the likes of whales,
porpoises and gannets.”
Peter McAllister, Electrical Technician Steve Jude, WA OIM & SNS NUI Offshore Operations Engineer
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“I can get out of my chair on WA and I can be putting the kettle on at home within an hour and ten minutes – that includes the helicopter flight and the drive over the Humber Bridge. We have helicopters arriving every day, we get the papers every day, there’s easy communication with the beach – which you can see from the Amethyst field. The platforms are small, with process plant that’s quite compact, and being gas producers, they’re also relatively easy to keep clean. All this makes SNS an entirely different working environment from the oil platforms of the Northern North Sea.”
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From the earliest days of North Sea gas development, BP has played a proactive role in monitoring the environment around its SNS operations and in supporting local conservation studies and community projects. These include conducting a long-term coastal erosion and preservation study in partnership with the University of Hull, focusing on the clay-based cliffs where the Terminals are located. More recently, BP has sponsored the Little Tern Project, which aims to conserve and increase the population of little terns at Easington Lagoons, and the company has also chaired the Beach Monitoring Committee, which funds and organises environmental improvements in the Spurn area, such as upgrading footpaths and signage. Since the late 1990s, BP SNS has used an Environmental Management System (EMS) as part of its business processes, to minimise its impact on the environment. This aligns with the company’s overall Health, Safety and Environmental Management framework ‘Getting HSE Right’. The EMS is certified to ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management systems, and to EMAS, the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. It is verified by an independent body to ensure it meets the required criteria for these standards.
The most recent surveys commissioned to measure the effect of SNS offshore activities on the marine environment, have shown that in terms of seabed sediment quality and species biodiversity, there is no significant effect and no apparent cumulative effect, after forty years of gas production from the West Sole field. Family Affair West Sole Alpha is renowned among crew members and visitors alike for its close-knit, family atmosphere of trust, teamwork and that unique blend of banter, humour and mickey-taking that can only be found offshore. Even more special is the fact that this bond also extends beyond the working environment, with colleagues and their families meeting up regularly for social evenings or weekends away, which they organise themselves. “The families get to find out what the team’s main work challenges are going to be for the coming year and it’s a great opportunity for them to meet the other team members and their families in an informal atmosphere,” says Paul Nixon.
A key part of the EMS is the production of an annual environmental performance report, independently verified by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), which informs all interested parties of how SNS manages its environmental impact. Year on year, these reports promote continuous improvement by setting environmental objectives and recording progress against them. The 2004 report demonstrates continuing reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) and non-methane hydrocarbon gases.
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“West Sole has a great life still ahead of her, and the whole team has a lot to look forward to. Here’s to a safe and successful future!” Paul Nixon, WA OIM & SNS NUI Offshore Operations Engineer
Did You Know…?
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In the early days of the West Sole field, crushed walnuts were used to keep open fractures in the reservoir and increase the flow rates of gas. The fractures in the reservoir have to be created artificially, by pumping fluids at a high enough rate to crack the formation. The walnuts were subsequently replaced by coarse sand.
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“I spent twenty years here, before leaving to work in other places for four years, and when I returned from Azerbaijan a year ago, I found that nothing had changed. By that I mean it is still a great place to work and there’s still a great sense of fun among the guys here.” Stuart Wylie, Operations Development Adviser
Did You Know…? West Sole was designed for remote control from shore - technology which is now being revisited for the newest generation of North Sea fields.
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Life’s A Gas It’s hard to imagine life without a ready supply of natural gas at our fingertips. It’s also hard to over-estimate the importance of gas production to our UK economy today. According to UKOOA (United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association), in 2004, 41% of our electricity was generated from gas, and this figure is projected to rise to 66% by 2020. The good news is, UKCS gas reserves are nowhere near the point of drying up – in fact, there is still almost as much to recover as has been produced in the past forty years. According to UKOOA, the oil and gas industry has reached a crossroads pointing to two possible – and very different – futures. The worst case scenario (ie fiscal instability, decreasing investment, rapid decline) would bring billions of pounds worth of import bills, billions lost in UK tax revenue, and the loss of several hundred thousand jobs. The bright future scenario (fiscal stability, sustained investment in new fields and improved infrastructure) promises minimal reliance on oil and gas imports, wealth creation, a healthy UK economy and many thousands of jobs for decades to come. BP, along with many others in the industry, is committed to making this bright future a reality, and continues to invest heavily in the North Sea and to generate quality opportunities that will attract future investment. Fit for the Future West Sole - which still has substantial reserves in place, accounts for nearly a third of annual production from the SNS Performance Unit, and produces around one per cent of the UK’s gas - has a highly significant part to play in the future of the North Sea. But this will not be without its challenges. Field Operations Manager, Jeff Hoyle, sets the scene:
“It’s a very exciting time for West Sole. It’s the biggest BP-equity gas producer, it holds the largest amount of hydrocarbon resources in place than any of our other SNS gas fields, its field life is set to extend to around 2022, and we have plans in place to enhance production still further (see Production Enhancement, below). “However, bearing in mind that the platforms were originally designed to last twenty-five years and have now reached their fortieth anniversary, our big challenge is to ensure that they are robust enough to produce for another two decades. That’s where our work on integrity comes in.” In recent years, integrity has become a major focus area in West Sole and in the other mature SNS fields, supported by significant investment by BP and by the creation of the new multi-functional offshore Maintenance and Projects teams. The offshore and onshore teams have worked closely together to transform the facilities, replacing topsides steel work, such as grating and cable-trays, to ensure a safer, more congenial working environment. With these improvements in place, a major £6.5 million upgrade project is now being planned to improve longer-term structural integrity of the facilities, both subsea and topsides. Paul Nixon says he and his colleagues are pleased to be playing a part in extending the life of a field they have grown very fond of:
“Like our predecessors, we’re committed to looking after the field. We want to be good custodians so that we have a great asset to pass on to the people who come after us.” Easington Terminal, too, is looking forward to the future. Mike Thompson, Dimlington/Easington Site Manager, explains:
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Did You Know…?
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Pre-1967, gas in the UK was generated from coal and was available only in large towns and cities. This ‘town gas’ was stored in enormous steel containers and was mainly used by industry.
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“We continue to evolve: forty years on, we have a simplified processing plant and a fully remote operation from Dimlington continually striving for higher efficiency and performance, thereby still providing a place of choice for current West Sole and other third party gas delivery in the Southern North Sea.
New opportunities involving third parties will also be part of West Sole’s bright future. One Gulf of Mexico operator has already started exploration drilling in the field’s acreage - a welcome development that sits well with BP’s commercial strategy to attract and share existing infrastructure with new entrants into the North Sea.
“We plan to continue delivering operational excellence, employing skilled personnel, looking for innovative ways of better working, and being a proactive part of our local communities and supporting local charities and education programmes.”
“We are very interested in attracting third-party business to West Sole and we look forward to creating many more opportunities of this kind in the future,” says Jeff Hoyle.
Mike adds: “Easington was the UK's first onshore gas terminal - we aim to be here to the end, delivering North Sea gas to the community."
Here’s to the Future! With many more years of production and a wealth of improvement and development activities to look forward to, West Sole, in its fortieth year, is still very much in the prime of its life.
Production Enhancement The integrity programme is paving the way for another exciting project, which will enhance production from West Sole by taking gas compression offshore. “In a late-life field, the closer compression is to the wells, the more we can deplete the reservoir,” explains Jeff Hoyle. “We are now planning to install an unmanned offshore gas compression module to West Sole Bravo, which should be in operation by 2008. It’s a major project which will achieve significant results.” Jeff adds: “We are also exploring a number of new technology applications for the field, which will further enhance production.” Room for All, Need for All As well as the promise of enhanced production from the West Sole platforms themselves, further field tie-ins, identified by increasingly innovative Drilling, Wells and Subsurface activities, are very real possibilities for the coming years.
Jeff adds: “It's a very exciting asset. The number of 'Firsts' that West Sole can claim is impressive - they fundamentally enabled a UK energy revolution. “This trend will no doubt continue past 2020 as the challenges change and innovative solutions are needed. The field has a great future and everyone who helped make this happen should feel proud.” As important now as it ever was to our economy, our industries and our everyday lives, West Sole will continue in its quiet, unassuming way to supply the nation with that invisible, but indispensable product of the Southern North Sea – natural gas.
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O F
W E S T
S O L E
1959:
Discovery of one of the world’s largest gas fields at Groningen, in Holland
1964:
UK Ministry of Power divides the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) into 10km-square blocks Block 48/6 to is allocated to BP in the UK’s first round of exploration licensing
September:
and topsides by Brown and Root; design and installation of pipework and electrical equipment by George Wimpey Ltd; design and installation of drilling equipment by Santa Fe Drilling Company 1969: September:
1965
Exploration drilling by Sea Gem begins on West Sole
September: December:
West Sole field discovered Sea Gem capsizes; 13 crew lose their lives at sea
1966
Signing of Statement of Intent with British Gas Design and construction of platform WA six and eight-leg jackets, platform WAP jacket and top sides, and WB eight-leg jacket and topsides, by Brown and Root Design and installation of all pipework and electrical equipment by George Wimpey Ltd Design and installation of all drilling equipment by the Santa Fe Drilling Company Commencement of seabed survey for 16-inch diameter pipeline. Consent from the Ministry of Power, under the Pipeline Act 1962, to lay the 16-inch diameter pipeline Commencement of offshore installation by Brown and Root Completion of the installation of WA, WAP and connecting bridge link Commencement of 16-inch diameter pipeline laying operations Commencement of drilling operations from WA
March: May:
July:
1970: July:
August: 1971:
July: August: December: 1968: October:
Hydrocarbon dewpoint plant installed Platform WAS installed Two additional production wells drilled on WAS, bringing total number of production wells on WA to six West Sole Supply Agreement in place WC drilling operations completed: six wells drilled. Removal of drilling equipment from WC 12-inch riser and pipeline from WC to WB commissioned Regular gas contract deliveries begin from WC
1974:
Satellite platform WAS installed Two additional production wells drilled on WAS, bringing total number of production wells on WA to six
1976:
Hoton field discovered
1978:
Removal of platform WE
1980:
Announcement of onshore Gas Compression Project for the West Sole field
1981:
Installation of 24-inch diameter subsea pipeline from WB to Easington Replacement Westinghouse telemetry system installed
December: 1967
Platform WC installation completed WC drilling operations begin 12-inch pipeline installed from WC to WB
Construction of Easington Terminal First delivery of North Sea natural gas Regular contract deliveries to British Gas begin from WA Completion of drilling operations on WA Three producing wells on WB
1982: June:
Total of six production wells on WB Drilling equipment removed from WA and WB Design and construction of WC eight-leg jackets
July:
Drilling of new well on WAS Replacement of dehydration facilities on WA and WB, and installation of gas compressors, power generators and ancillary equipment, at Easington Terminal, as part of West Sole Gas Compression Project Completion of the 26km onshore gas condensate pipeline from Easington Terminal to BP Chemicals, Saltend. The pipeline was constructed to reduce the volume of heavy tanker traffic through the narrow roads of Holderness
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1983:
Completion and commissioning of compressors at Easington Terminal
1984:
Production reaches 1 trillion cubic feet
1987:
Additional production well drilled on WAS
1988:
Commencement of West Sole Modifications Project
1989:
1990:
Newsham field discovered Winter: Completion of West Sole Modifications Project Pipeline Safety Project modifications made in field
1996: May:
Newsham in production West Sole contract with British Gas terminated WC Well 40 drilled
1997:
NUI Project commenced to simplify and upgrade WB and WC facilities, prior to changing WB and WC status to NUI
1998
WB and WC NUI major works complete. WB and WC de-manned and operated as an NUI New air compressors installed on WC as part of WC modifications project
November:
2000: 2001:
1991: November:
1992-93:
May:
August:
1994: 1995:
Platform WC gas converted to instrument air. Two new air compressors installed on WC Additional production well drilled on WA, bringing total number of production wells to nine High Pressure Well 35z drilled on WC Hyde field development project begins: Easington Terminal onshore water-handling capacity upgraded and construction/installation of the Hyde offshore platform and 14-inch pipeline Decommissioning of 12-inch diameter pipeline from WC to WB Subsea tie-in of WC 12-inch riser to Hyde 14-inch pipeline Installation of WC wet gas facilities Tie-in of 14-inch diameter Hyde pipeline to 24-inch pipeline on seabed at WB Upgrade from Westinghouse Telemetry System to Fisher Control System First gas from Hyde platform Wet gas from WC and Hyde produced exclusively down the 24-inch pipeline to Easington Terminal WB Well 48/6-11 temporarily suspended following unsuccessful Coiled Tubing Drilling operation Installation of Newsham subsea facility and associated process plant on WA Wet operation and the removal of dehydration process equipment from WA and WB Well 39 drilled on WC
2003:
Safety improvements made to the WA sphere launcher Installation of the Hoton J-tube umbilical, to provide power, control and process chemicals from WA First gas from Hoton Commissioning of the Terminal Integration Project (all gas processing transferred from Easington Terminal to Dimlington Terminal) WA changes from being a permanently manned installation to a manned installation which is occasionally unmanned. Minor modifications to enable this change include new generator and additional fire and gas facilities West Sole Compression Project completed at Dimlington Terminal, enabling more efficient use of energy for gas compression and resulting in significant reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides
2003/2004:
Major reorganisation of offshore teams to provide greater focus on facilities integrity improvement
2005:
West Sole celebrates Fortieth Anniversary
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40TH ANNIVERSARY
Working for West Sole’s Future
The colleagues describe life on West Sole Alpha as “homely” and “jovial” and say a sense of humour is a
Instrument Technicians Liam Spiers (24) and Stewart
necessary requirement for the job.
Robinson (23) are BP’s newest young recruits in the West Sole field.
“We all get on very well and there are plenty of laughs and wind-ups. Work-wise, we all chip in and help each
Previously employed by AMEC, the colleagues joined the
other – you need to be able to do that in such a small,
SNS Campaign Team two years ago and have already
close-working team,” says Stewart.
gained valuable experience - not only in planned maintenance, repairs and intervention work in the West
Both are delighted to have joined BP at this early stage in
Sole and Amethyst fields, but also in a range of other
their careers and can see plenty of opportunities ahead. For
offshore duties, including Emergency Response, HLO
now, they are keen to gain as much experience as possible
(Helicopter Landing Operator) and Coxswain.
in the UK’s oldest field.
“The work varies from day to day. We’re based on West
“West Sole Alpha is special – it was the first platform built in the North Sea and it’s still going strong. It’s great to think we’re playing a part in the field’s future,” says Liam (below, left).
Sole Alpha at night, but in the daytime we shuttle out to carry out campaign maintenance on the satellites, in line with the annual plan. Our main focus is to ensure that all maintenance is completed on time,” explains Liam, who comes from Bo’ness, near Grangemouth. “Sometimes one of us is brought in to assist the onshorebased maintenance teams, as part of a three-man multi-functional intervention team,” adds Stewart, who, coming from an army family, has lived in many locations in the UK and overseas. While Stewart served his apprenticeship with Conoco and has several years of offshore experience, Liam’s career path began in the onshore chemicals industry, but changed direction when he heard about the opportunities for technicians in the North Sea. “I’d heard lots of good things about working offshore from friends and relatives, and if I’m honest, the time off and financial benefits were also very attractive,” he says.
Did You Know…? Condensate is a light petroleum fluid mainly used as a feedstock for the chemical industry.
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"I am honoured to work on an asset that is forty years old and still contributing such a lot. Operating profit generated from the West Sole development this year is expected to be more than $100 million. This is still a very significant field. We are not simply maintaining it but investing in it, to support a further fifteen years of life, and I am proud that it has such a promising future." Rashid Javanshir, SNS Performance Unit Leader
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WEST
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STORY
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS IN THE SOUTHERN NORTH SEA
A special thank you to everyone involved in the production of this 40 year celebration.
Designed and Produced by M&M Media in association with Boxtree Creative, Aberdeen.
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