53°42′14″N 0°35′35″E / 53.704°N 0.593°E / 53.704; 0.593The Easington Catchment Area (known as ECA) is a group of natural gas producing fields in the Southern North Sea. They lie in UK Blocks 42 and 47 between 25 and 30 miles (40 and 48 km) east of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. The fields are operated by Perenco.

Development

The Easington Catchment Area project was developed in two phases. The £150 million first phase involved development of the Mercury (Block 47/9b) and Neptune (Blocks 47/4b and 47/5a) gas fields which had been discovered in 1983 and 1985 respectively.[1] The ECA partners were, for the Neptune field: BG Exploration and Production Limited (61%), BP (18%), and Amerada Hess (21%); and for the Mercury Field: BG Exploration and Production Limited (73%) and Amerada Hess (27%).[2]

The Neptune field was developed using three new wells, an existing well and a new NUI (normally unattended installation). The Mercury field was developed with a subsea installation with well fluids produced to the Neptune NUI via a 10-inch diameter pipeline. The Neptune platform consists of a 630 tonne jacket supporting a 681 tonne deck. From the Neptune platform co-mingled fluids are transported to a dedicated riser tower on the Cleeton installation via a 16-inch diameter pipeline. The gas is separated, dried and metered on Cleeton before transmission into the BP Cleeton/Dimlington pipeline system. A contract for the pipelines and subsea facilities, valued at around £23m, was awarded to ETPM UK. Methanol for hydrate formation inhibition is piped from Cleeton to the Neptune platform. First gas was produced in 1999.

Details of the first phase installations are summarised in the table.[3] [4] [5]

Easington Catchment Area phase 1 developments
Installation Neptune Mercury
Block 47/4b 47/9b
Coordinates 53°28’59”N 0°46’59”E 53°46’00”N 0°37’59”E
Reservoir Rotliegendes sandstone Rotliegendes sandstone
Discovered 1985 1983
Gas in place, million cubic feet 465
Type Fixed steel platform Subsea wellhead
Water depth, metres 47 30
Substructure weight, tonnes 630 64
Topsides weight, tonnes 681 –
Wells 4 1
Export to Cleeton Neptune
Export line length, diameter 6.91 km, 16-inch 26.5 km, 10-inch
Start of production 1999 1999
Peak flow, million cubic metres/y 2,007 627
Year of peak flow 2001 2001
Cumulative production to end of 2014, mcm 10,978 3,069

The production profile, in mcm/y, of the Neptune field was as shown.[3]

Second phase

The £270 million second phase of the ECA project, known as Juno, included the development of the Apollo (Block 47/4a), Artemis (Block 47/3), Minerva (Block 47/3), Whittle (Block 42/28b) and Wollaston (Block 42/28) gas fields.[6] The majority stakeholder for the Juno fields was the BG Group.

The Minerva hub facilities consist of subsea production systems on Apollo and Artemis and a normally unattended installation (NUI) at Minerva. The Apollo subsea wells are tied back via a manifold and pipeline to the Minerva platform. The Artemis appraisal well is also tied back via a separate pipeline to the Minerva platform. Produced fluids from all three fields are co-mingled on the Minerva platform, and the combined flow exported via a 16-inch diameter pipeline to the BG-operated ECA riser tower bridge-linked to the Cleeton complex. The Wollaston and Whittle fields are developed via subsea wells and flowlines tied back via a manifold and a 12-inch diameter pipeline to the ECA riser tower, where they are co-mingled with the Minerva hub fluids. The first gas from the second phase was produced in 2003.[7]

Apollo and Artemis are named from the Greek deities, Minerva from the Roman Deity, Whittle from Frank Whittle the inventor of the turbojet engine, and Wollaston from the Scientist William Hyde Wollaston. The second phase JUNO installations are summarised in the table.[3] [4] [5]

Easington Catchment Area phase 2 JUNO developments
Installation Apollo Artemis Minerva Whittle Wollaston
Block 47/3b 47/3 42/28b 42/28b 42/28a
Coordinates 53.90000

0.550000

 53.916667

0.550000

 53.950147

0.594915

 54.110306

0.542964

 54.114944

0.842167

Reservoir Permian sandstone Permian sandstone Permian sandstone Permian sandstone Permian

Carboniferous

Discovered July 1987 August 1974 January 1969 July 1990 April 1989
Gas in place, billion cubic feet 300
Type Subsea Subsea Fixed steel Subsea Subsea
Water depth, metres 40 40 40 53 53
Wells 2 4 1 1
Substructure weight, tonnes 790 120 120
Topsides weight, tonnes 847 – –
Export to Minerva Cleeton Cleeton Whittle
Export line length, diameter 6.34 km, 8-inch 13.28 km, 12-inch 14.88 km, 12-inch 5.46 km, 12-inch
Start of production 2003 2003 2003 2003
Peak flow, million cubic metres/y 392 577 481
Year of peak flow 2004 2003 2004
Cumulative production to end of 2014, mcm 2,740 3,601 2,642

The production profile, in mcm/y, of the Apollo field was as shown.[3]

In 2009 BP acquired BG Group's share of the Juno fields. In 2012 BP sold its interests in the ECA fields and installations to Perenco.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "BG ECA development".
  2. ↑ "Neptune and Mercury gas fields".
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Oil and Gas UK – Field data". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Inventory of Offshore Installations". odims.ospar.org. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 "OGA interactive Maps". ogauthority.maps.arcgis.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  6. ↑ "Juno development underway".
  7. ↑ "First gas from Juno".
  8. ↑ "Sale of BP assets to Perenco".

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