Rhum Gasfield
Development of the Rhum project cost approximately £350 million. Prior to the start of production, Rhum was the largest remaining undeveloped gas reservoir in the UK Continental Shelf. The original partners in the Rhum field were BP (Operator) 50% and Iranian Oil Company (U.K.) Limited (a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company) 50%. The Rhum field is a high-temperature, high-pressure reservoir, experiencing down-hole temperatures of 150 °C and pressures of 12,700 psi. By comparison, the Bruce gas field, records temperatures of 99 °C and pressures of 6,000 psi.
Rhum, which lies in block 3/29, was discovered in 1977 by well 3/29a-2. An earlier well (3/29-1) which was drilled in 1973, was abandoned due to the high pressure gas. With the combination of a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gas reservoir developed using a long distance subsea tie-back, exploitation of Rhum is regarded by BP as a world first.
Plateau production of 300 million standard cubic feet per day is expected from the field. Rhum is expected to access recoverable reserves of 800 billion cubic feet of gas (23 billion cubic metres).
The field is tied back to the Serica-operated Bruce platform via a 28-mile (44 km) long 22-inch (560 mm) High Integrity Pipeline Protection System (HIPPS) protected pipe-in-pipe main export pipeline. New gas processing facilities were installed on the existing Bruce Compression Reception Centre (CR) platform to process gas from Rhum. Gas is exported from Bruce via the Frigg pipeline system to St Fergus. Associated condensate is piped via Bruce into the Forties Pipeline System.
References
- ^ Kavanagh, Michael (18 October 2014). "BP reopens North Sea field frozen by Iranian sanctions: Oil & gas". Financial Times. London, UK.
- ^ "BP restarts production at North Sea gasfield half-owned by Iran". BBC Monitoring Middle East. London. 19 October 2014.
- ^ "BP to restart North Sea gas field half-owned by Iran". Reuters. London. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
- ^ "BP Halts Production From U.K. Rhum North Sea Gas Field". Bloomberg. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ "Gas field deal closer despite Iran delay". BBC News. 2018-10-09. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ "Gas production starts at UK Rhum field". www.ogj.com. 27 December 2005. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ "Rhum to restart soon". sysla.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2020-04-19.