Clair Ridge milestone

THE PARTNERS in the £4.5 billion Clair Ridge development, 75 kilometres west of Shetland, reached a major milestone, when engineers safely installed two massive platform jackets in 140 metres of water.

Oil company BP said on Tuesday that the project was on schedule to start production in late 2016.

Oil and gas will be exported via a pipeline to the Sullom Voe Terminal, in Shetland.

The Clair Ridge investment is the second phase of developing one of the largest oil and gas reservoirs in the UK.

The field holds an estimated eight billion barrels of oil equivalent although there is considerable uncertainty as to how much of the oil can eventually be recovered.

Clair Ridge is designed to extract 640 million barrels of that oil over a 40 year period with peak production expected to reach 120,000 barrels a day.

Regional president for BP’s North Sea business, Trevor Garlick, said: “Less than two years ago we announced our decision to invest in the giant Clair Ridge project.

“The safe installation of the two jackets in to the sea bed is a fantastic achievement by the project team, and is a very visible sign of our commitment to maintaining a successful long term business in the UK.”

Originally discovered back in 1977, phase one of the Clair development only commenced in February 2005. To date, 80 million barrels of oil have been produced.

The partners in the multi billion investment are: BP Exploration (27.6 per cent), ConocoPhillips (24 per cent), Chevron (19.4 per cent), Enterprise Oil (18.7 per cent), Shell (9.3 per cent) and Britoil (1 per cent).