Cormorant Alpha
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The Cormorant oilfield is located north east of
Lerwick Lerwick ( or ; ; ) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. It is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom. Centred ...
,
Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. It was discovered in September 1972 at a depth of . The oil reservoir is located at a depth of . Production started in December 1979 from the Cormorant Alpha platform and operates from two platforms and an underwater manifold centre.


Description

The Cormorant oilfield is located north east of
Lerwick Lerwick ( or ; ; ) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. It is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom. Centred ...
,
Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, in block number 211/26a. It was discovered in September 1972 at a depth of . Estimated recovery is of oil. The oil reservoir is located at a depth of . The discovery well, 211/26-1 was drilled by semi submersible rig Staflo. Originally, it was operated by
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
and licensed to Shell/
Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...
. On 7 July 2008, it was purchased by
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company Taqa or TAQA may refer to: * Taqa, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * Taqah, town in Oman * Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) *Training, Assessment and Quality Assurance (TAQA) in relation to adult, further and work-based education ...
.


Production

Production operates from two Cormorant platforms. Details of the construction are given in the table. In addition, an
Underwater Manifold Centre An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the underw ...
(controlled from the Cormorant platform) also produces oil. This started up in mid 1983. It has a design capacity for . The UMC lost communications several years ago, but a project is looking to produce from the UMC once again. Also a single satellite well (P1) is linked to the platform with a design capacity of .


Cormorant Alpha

Production started in December 1979 from the Cormorant Alpha platform. This platform is a concrete gravity platform of the Sea Tank Co type. It has four legs and storage capacity for of oil. The total sub-structure weight is 294,655 tonnes and it is designed to carry a
topsides The topsides on a boat, ship, watercraft, or floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, is that part of the hull between the waterline and the deck.Rognaas, G., Xu, J., Lindseth, S., & Rosendahl, F. (2001). Mobile offshore base c ...
weight of 32,350 tonnes. The topsides facilities included capability to drill, produce, meter and pump oil. It also has capability to re-inject water to maintain reservoir pressure. Peak production was in 1979. The platform is also the starting point for the Brent System pipeline, a major communications centre and the location of Brent Log - air traffic control for Northern North Sea helicopter traffic. The topsides for Cormorant Alpha were designed by Matthew Hall Engineering, which was awarded the contract in October 1974.Matthew Hall Engineering publicity brochure n.d. but c. 1990 Initially there were facilities for 17 oil production wells, 18 water injection wells and one gas injection well. The production capacity was 60,000
barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids ...
of oil per day and 900,000 standard cubic metres of gas per day. There was a single production train of three stages of separation with the first stage operating at a pressure of 30 barg. The 16 subsea storage cells had a capacity of 600,000 barrels. Electricity generation was powered by one 12 MW
Rolls-Royce Avon The Rolls-Royce Avon was the first axial flow jet engine designed and produced by Rolls-Royce. Introduced in 1950, the engine went on to become one of their most successful post-World War II engine designs. It was used in a wide variety of ai ...
gas turbine and four 2.5 MW Solar Mars gas turbines. The topside accommodation was for 200 people. There are 16 topsides modules and the topsides weight was 25,000 tonnes. Natural gas is exported from Cormorant Alpha via the Vesterled gas pipeline which connect into the
FLAGS A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have ...
pipeline at Brent Alpha to
St Fergus Gas Terminal The St Fergus Gas Terminal is a large gas terminal found near St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and is protected by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The other main UK gas terminals are at Bacton, Norfolk and the Easington, East Riding of York ...
.


Accidents

A Norwegian organisation states that the Cormorant A platform almost sank in 1977 during its construction in Norway. This was disputed in a TV documentary on 7 May 2007. An explosion on 3 March 1983 killed two people outright and another died of burns later in hospital. The Cormorant Alpha crew waited inside the safe accommodation area for 2–3 days while the weather remained too bad for general helicopter evacuations, and eventually stood down and back to work a week or so later. On 16 January 2013 and again on 2 March 2013, a hydrocarbon leak in one of the legs of the platform was reported. Personnel were evacuated from the platform and the Brent System was closed down, however no oil had been spilt into the sea. Many environmental groups called for the UK and Scottish governments to regulate the industry and the "aging" platforms more closely.


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 i ...
*
Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom Total energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0million tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651TWh) in 2019. In 2014, the UK had an energy consumption ''per capita'' of 2.78tonnes of oil equivalent (32.3MWh) compared to a world average of 1 ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cormorant Oilfield North Sea oil fields Oil and gas industry in Shetland Oil fields of Scotland