The Fulmar Oilfield is situated 312 km east of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

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 ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in block number 30/16 and 30/11b. It is operated by Repsol Sinopec who took over from the previous operator, Shell at the end of 2006. At this time Talisman also purchased the equity of the other partners

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

and Amerada Hess. The field was discovered in December 1975 by well 30/16-6 in a water depth of 82 metres. Estimated ultimate recovery is 544 million barrels (86.5 m³) of oil. It is named after the

fulmar The fulmars are tube-nosed seabirds in the family Procellariidae. The family includes two extant species, and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on s ...

, a sea bird. The oil reservoir is located at a depth of 3,050 metres. The "Fulmar A platform" operates above the oilfield. Production started in February 1982 from the Fulmar 'A' platform. This platform is a steel, 8 legged jacket designed by McDermott Engineering and constructed at Nigg,

Easter Ross Easter Ross () is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituency and a Scotti ...

. This jacket weighs 12,400 tonnes and supports a topside weight of around 22,560 tonnes. The jacket and platform were installed in July 1979 and June 1980. Design data for the installations in the Fulmar field is summarized below. The topsides facilities included capability to drill, produce, meter, pump oil and gas. It can also inject both gas and water. Production is exported via the Norpipe system to

Teesside Teesside () is an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

. Associated natural gas from the reservoir is separated and used to power electrical generation with the excess being transported by the Fulmar Gas Pipeline to St. Fergus. Previously oil was exported by using an oil tanker anchored to the sea bed. The ''Medora'' Floating Storage Offloading (FSO) vessel broke free on the evening of 24 December 1988 narrowly missing the BP operated Clyde platform in the process. At that time Fulmar Alpha was host to a BBC crew who, not only, reported on the event but later delivered a live watchnight service broadcast from the platform in memory of the

Piper Alpha disaster Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea about north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 1976, initially as an oil-only platform, but ...

. Some of the same BBC crew having come directly from reporting on the Lockerbie disaster.

References

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

See also

References