Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields

The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields are natural gas reservoirs and gas production facilities in two locations in the southern North Sea. The fields produced natural gas from 1995.

History

The Davy gas field was discovered as early as 1970 but there was limited local infrastructure to transport gas to shore. ^[1] The Bessemer and Beaufort fields were discovered in 1989 and 1991 by wells 49/23-5 and 49/23-7 respectively. The improved production technology in the late 1980s made the development of the fields viable. Technology included horizontal wells and minimum topsides facilities. Gas from the fields was routed to Indefatigable 49/23AT for compression. ^[1]  

The gas fields

The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort, Brown and Boyle gas fields are located in the UK Offshore Blocks 49/30 and 53/05. ^[1] The fields were initially developed by Amoco, which merged with BP in 1998. Perenco assumed ownership in 2003 and were responsible for later developments. The fields are named after British and Irish scientists, engineers and inventors: namely Humphry Davy, Henry Bessemer, Francis Beaufort, Charles Brown and Robert Boyle.

The characteristics of the gas reservoirs and the production facilities are summarised in the table. ^{[2] [1] [3] [4] [5]}

Installation	Davy		Davy North	Davy East		Bessemer	Beaufort		Boyle	Brown
UK Offshore Block	49/30 53/5a		49/30a	53/5b		49/23e	49/23		49/30	49/30
Coordinates	53.051969°N 3.011500°E		53.096661°N 2.843161°E	52.983394°N 2.974469°E		53.331961°N 2.508322°E
Gas reservoir	Rotliegend variable isopach					Rotliegend Leman sandstone				As Davy
Field discovered	1970					1989	1991	1989		1998
Gas in place, billion cubic feet	164					90	30
Installation type	Monotower		Subsea wellhead	Subsea wellhead		Monotower	Wellhead		Wellhead	Wellhead
Water depth, metres	34		34	41		28	29		34
Substructure weight, tonnes	794					780	–		–	–
Topsides weight, tonnes	513		–	–		481	–		–	–
No. of Wells	4		1	1		3	1 - drilled from Bessemer		From Davy	From Davy
Gas export to	Inde 49/23AT		Davy	Davy		Inde 49/23AT	–		Davy	Davy
Export pipeline length, diameter	42.37 km, 16-inch		10.31 km, 8-inch	5.71 km, 6-inch		15.59 km, 16-inch	–		–	–
Pipeline number	PL1053		PL1871	PL2344		PL1055	–		–	–
Start of production	1995		2001	2007		1995	1996		2002	2001
Peak flow, million cubic metres/y	930			93		1,204	1		456	118
Year of peak flow	1996			2007		2000	2001		2003	2001
Cumulative production to end of 2014, million cubic metres	5,810			280		5,410	1		1,758	324

Gas production

Bessemer also receives gas from the N.W, Bell wellhead (49/23) via a 9.45 km, 6-inch pipeline.

The Davy and Bessemer installations export gas to the Indefatigable 49/23AT platform which has reception facilities for the 16-inch pipelines from Davy and Bessemer. After processing the gas is routed, along with Inde gas, to the Bacton gas terminal.

The gas production profile, in mcm/y, for Davy is as shown.

The gas production profile, in mcm/y, for Bessemer is as shown.

Production from Davy North and Beaufort has ceased.

See also

• Indefatigable gas field
• Bacton gas terminal
• List of oil and gas fields of the North Sea

References

1. Littler, Adrian N.; Kearney, Carroll; Schultz, Mike; Hennington, Eric; Parsons, Pete (1996). "Marginal Gas Field Developments in the Southern North Sea: Davy and Bessemer: A case study" . onepetro.org. doi:10.2118/36873-MS . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
2. "The Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort and Brown Fields". mem.lyellcollection.org. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
3. "Oil and Gas UK – Field data". www.gov.uk/guidance. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
4. "Inventory of Offshore Installations". odims.ospar.org. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
5. "OGA interactive Maps". ogauthority.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.