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The Auk Oilfield is situated east, southeast of
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
, in block number 30/16.


Reservoir

It was discovered in October 1970 in a water depth of 182 metres. The oil reservoir is a
Rotliegend The Rotliegend, Rotliegend Group or Rotliegendes (german: the underlying red) is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) of latest Carboniferous to Guadalupian (middle Permian) age that is found in the subsurface of large areas in wes ...
es sandstone overlaid with
Zechstein The Zechstein (German either from ''mine stone'' or ''tough stone'') is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Middle to Late Permian ( Guadalupian to Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of Engl ...
carbonates and ls located at a depth of . Estimated ultimate recovery is of oil. The oil has an API gravity of 38 degrees and a gas-oil-ratio of 155 scf/bbl.


Infrastructure

The Auk 'A' platform was a steel, 8 legged jacket designed by Shell Oil and constructed at
Methil Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill) is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as ov ...
,
Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
. The jacket weighs 3,414 tonnes, it was installed in July 1974 and supported a topside weight of around 8,000 tonnes.


Operator

It was operated by Shell UK Exploration and Production Ltd, in 50% partnership with
Esso Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...
until October 2006 when it was bought by Talisman Energy, and is now licensed by Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Ltd. The field is named after the Auk a family of sea birds. Myles Bowen, Shell's Exploration Manager in 1970, had a keen interest in
ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and began the naming convention of birds. There is an (entirely fanciful) legend that it was to be called A UK, as the first British oilfield, until somebody realised that the sixth field would be called F UK and Shell's policy was rapidly changed to name their fields after sea birds. Shells sixth UK oilfield is called Fulmar.


Production

Production started in December 1975 from the Auk 'A' platform. The topsides facilities included capability to drill, produce meter and pump oil. There were 10 well slots with 6 initially drilled. The plant has a capacity of 80,000 barrels of oil per day, Production start up was in December 1975. Initially production was to an ELSBM and then to the Fulmar Alpha platform in August 1986.The Exposed Location Single Buoy Mooring (ELSBM) has a height of 74 metres and stands in a water depth of 86 metres. It comprises a helideck, a mooring trunk, a mooring rope reel turntable buoyancy compartments and a ballast compartment. It is anchored to the seabed by eight 13.5 tonne anchors and 600 metre chains. It is supplied with oil through two 10 inch diameter hoses. Associated gas from the reservoir was separated and used to power electrical generation with the excess being flared. Oil production (in thousands of barrels) was as follows:


See also

*
Energy policy of the United Kingdom The energy policy of the United Kingdom refers to the United Kingdom's efforts towards reducing energy intensity, reducing energy poverty, and maintaining energy supply reliability. The United Kingdom has had success in this, though energy in ...
*
Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom Energy in the United Kingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0million tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651 TWh) in 2019. In 2014, the UK had an energy consumption ''per capita'' of 2.78t ...


References

{{reflist North Sea oil fields Oil fields of Scotland Shell plc oil and gas fields