Joint Venture of BP Invest 700m Pound to Develop North Sea field

BP, a British oil company announced at the Offshore Europe oil and gas conference and exhibition in Aberdeen that it will make the oil investments up to Pound 700m for the development of Kinnoull reservoir, one of the three largest reservoirs being developed in the central North Sea. While holding a speech at the Aberdeen conference, Charles Hendry, the Energy Minister praised the UK's "booming" oil and gas sector. He also added that BP has been at the top position of a worldwide oil industry since it started exploring and producing in UK waters. The regional president for BP's North Sea business, Trevor Garlick said, "The Kinnoull project is an added manifestation of BP's vision to sustain a material and high quality business in the North Sea region." According to BP, in order to access the new reservoir, the project will install a new subsea system on to the Andrew platform. This joint project for oil investment is expected to open up more than 1,000 oil jobs inclusive of building subsea infrastructure in Wick, Hartlepool and Leeds, stated BP. In addition to that, BP, the production of this reservoir which currently contains 45 million barrels of oil equivalent is expected to see 45,000 barrels per day which will be exported through the existing Forties pipeline system to Kinneil. BP also stated that the reservoir will be connected to BP's Andrew platform that has processed and exported over 200 million barrels of oil and the equivalent of a further 40 million barrels in associated gas since it started production in 1996, will enable production to extend to 2020 and beyond. The development of the Kinnoull Field, 140 miles north east of Aberdeen, will be beneficial also for Andrew platform itself as it will increase the platform's life by almost 10 years. The details revealed by BP state that an installation of new subsea system will take place and the Andrew platform will undergo major changes such as the addition of a 750-ton process module. The strength of this project will be lying in four subsea pipeline bundles which are the longest bundle system in the world measuring the total length of 17.4 miles. These bundles will carry oil to the Andrew platform for processing. This bundle system is to be developed by Subsea 7 at its facility in Wick. According to the statistics, BP holds a 77.06% interest in the project with ENI and Summit Petroleum holding 16.67% and 6.27% interests, respectively.