The Douglas Complex is a high system of three linked platforms in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

, off the

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

coast. The Douglas oil field was discovered in 1990, and production commenced in 1996. Now operated by

Eni Eni S.p.A. () is an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome. Considered one of the seven " supermajor" oil companies in the world, it has operations in 69 countries with a market capitalization of US$54.08 billion, as of 11 ...

, the complex consists of the

wellhead A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment. The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...

platform, which drills into the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

, a processing platform, which separates

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

and water, and thirdly an accommodation platform, which is composed of living quarters for the crew. This accommodation module was formerly the Morecambe Flame jack-up drilling rig. The Douglas Complex is also the control hub for other platforms in the area, and provides power for all platforms. It also offers recreational, catering and medical facilities for up to 80 personnel. Oil from the Lennox, Hamilton, and Hamilton North unmanned satellite platforms is received and blended at the complex. Fluids from the Lennox installation via the gas pipeline are treated on the Douglas installation in the 3-phase (oil, gas and produced water) Lennox Production Separator.PFD Separation and Stripping, undated Following separation, gas flows to the Offgas Compressor suction manifold. Oil is directed to the Oil Stripper where the liquid is stripped of sour gas using a

counter-current flow Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some chemical, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each ...

of stripping gas. Produced water from the separator is directed to the Produced Water Hydrocyclones where hydrocarbon liquids are removed prior to overboard disposal. Well fluids from the Douglas Wellhead tower are treated in the 3-phase Douglas Production Separator. Gas flows to the Offgas Compressor suction manifold and hydrocarbon liquids are directed to the Oil Stripper, and water to hydrocyclones as described above. Oil from the Oil Stripper is pumped by the Oil Transfer Pumps via Fiscal metering to the Main Oil Transfer Pumps to tanker loading. Gas from the Oil Stripper is compressed and sent to the Offgas Compressor. Gas is sent through a

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

long to a processing plant at Point of Ayr, in

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

, North Wales. After processing, almost the entire output is sold to E.ON to fire the

combined cycle gas turbine A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

Connah's Quay Connah's Quay ( cy, Cei Connah), known locally as "The Quay" and formerly known as Wepre, is a town and community in Flintshire, lying within the Deeside conurbation along the River Dee, near the border with England. It is the largest town in F ...

, on

Deeside Deeside ( cy, Glannau Dyfrdwy) is the name given to a predominantly industrial conurbation of towns and villages in Flintshire and Cheshire on the Wales–England border lying near the canalised stretch of the River Dee that flows from neigh ...

, in Flintshire. Oil produced in

Liverpool Bay Liverpool Bay is a bay of the Irish Sea between northeast Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside to the east of the Irish Sea. The bay is a classic example of a region of freshwater influence. Liverpool Bay has historically suffered from redu ...

is sent through another pipeline, 17 km long, to the Offshore Storage Installation, a permanently anchored

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

which acts as a floating oil terminal, capable of holding of oil. From the floating terminal oil is transferred to tankers approximately once every month.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Douglas Complex on AIS LiverpoolPetroleum Act 1998 giving location of Douglas Complex
Oil platforms Oil fields of the United Kingdom Irish Sea 1996 establishments in the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links