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The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is the region of waters surrounding the United Kingdom, in which the country has mineral rights. The UK continental shelf includes parts of the North Sea, the North Atlantic, the Irish Sea and the English Channel; the area includes large resources of oil and gas. The UK continental shelf is bordered by Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the Republic of Ireland. A median line, setting out the domains of each of these nations, was established by mutual agreement between them: - see the Continental Shelf Act 1964.
Responsibility for the mineral rights of the UKCS rests with the Oil and Gas Authority part of Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which awards licences to oil companies to produce hydrocarbons from specific areas and regulates how much they can produce over what period.
The UKCS is divided into numbered rectangular Quadrants, each one degree of latitude by one degree of longitude. [1] Each Quadrant is further subdivided into 30 numbered Blocks (each 10 minutes latitude by 12 minutes longitude, thus each Quadrant has 5 blocks East-West by 6 blocks North-South), as shown below. [2]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
This numbering system then forms the identification for a particular oil or gas development. For example, the Harding oilfield, which is located in a fairly northern position, is in Quadrant 9, Block 23, denoted "9/23" (9/23b specifically to differentiate it from the Gryphon oilfield). The numbering of Quadrants follows several series: 1-58 (the original North Sea sequence); 71-75, 82-89, 91-113 (south-west of the UK and bordering France and the Republic of Ireland); 124-135, 137-144, 147-155, 157-166, 168-176 (the Atlantic west of Scotland); 204-225 (the North Sea north of Shetland and bordering Norway); 337-339, 341-349, 351-359 and 362-369 (the Atlantic west of the 124-176 sequence).
While the depth of the UK Continental Shelf varies significantly, the shallowness of the North Sea at an average depth of 95m has facilitated the development of offshore oil drilling and wind farms.
The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the north by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. The continental shelf, which drops away sharply, delimits the southern and western boundaries. The Iroise Sea off Brittany is entirely included within it. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of small islands in the sea.
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
The Brae field is a Scottish oil field. The name comes from a Scots language word for hillside. The field was discovered in 1974 by well 16/7-1 drilled by a semi-submersible rig Odin Drill for operator Pan Ocean.
The Statfjord oil field is a large oil and gas field covering 580 km2 in the U.K.-Norwegian boundary of the North Sea at a water depth of 145 m, discovered in 1974 by Mobil and since 1987 operated by Equinor.
The East Shetland Basin is a major oil-producing area of the North Sea between Scotland and Norway. It extends from 60°10′ N to 61°45′ N and 1°36′ E to 3°0′ E. It is 111.3 km north–south and at its maximum 55.8 km east–west.
The Auk Oilfield is situated 249 kilometres (155 mi) east, southeast of Aberdeen, Scotland, in block number 30/16.
Premier Oil plc was an independent UK oil company with gas and oil interests in the United Kingdom, Asia, Africa and Mexico. It was devoted entirely to the 'upstream' sector of the industry — the exploitation of oil and gas — as opposed to the 'downstream' refining and retail sector. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Chrysaor Holdings and then merged into Harbour Energy in March 2021.
This is an overview of Equinor's operations in various countries. Equinor is a Norwegian petroleum company.
The Forties Oil Field is the second largest oil field in the North Sea, after the Clair oilfield, which is located 110 miles east of Aberdeen. It was discovered in 1970 and first produced oil in 1975 under ownership of British Petroleum, now called BP.
The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The Southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the gulf on the north, are often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States.
Offshore oil and gas in the United States provides a large portion of the nation’s oil and gas supply. Large oil and gas reservoirs are found under the sea offshore from Louisiana, Texas, California, and Alaska. Environmental concerns have prevented or restricted offshore drilling in some areas, and the issue has been hotly debated at the local and national levels.
Mining in the United Kingdom produces a wide variety of fossil fuels, metals, and industrial minerals due to its complex geology. In 2013, there were over 2,000 active mines, quarries, and offshore drilling sites on the continental land mass of the United Kingdom producing £34bn of minerals and employing 36,000 people.
The Miller oilfield is a deep reservoir under the North Sea, 240 kilometres north-east of Peterhead in UKCS Blocks 16/7b and 16/8b. It was discovered in 1983 by BP in a water depth of 100 metres. Production from Miller field started in June 1992, and plateau production was from late 1992 to 1997 at rates of up to 150,000 barrels (24,000 m3) of oil and 255 million cu ft (7.2 million m3) of gas per day at standard conditions. Miller produced some 345 million barrels (54,900,000 m3) of oil during its lifetime. The field is named after Hugh Miller who contributed to Scottish geology in the early nineteenth century.
The oil and gas industry plays a central role in the economy of the United Kingdom. Oil and gas account for more than three-quarters of the UK's total primary energy needs. Oil provides 97 per cent of the fuel for transport, and gas is a key fuel for heating and electricity generation. Transport, heating and electricity each account for about one-third of the UK's primary energy needs. Oil and gas are also major feedstocks for the petrochemicals industries producing pharmaceuticals, plastics, cosmetics and domestic appliances.
The Armada gas field complex is a group of natural gas fields located in the Central North Sea 250 kilometres (160 mi) NE of Aberdeen, within the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. The field was operated by BG Group and is now operated by Shell. The complex consists of several fields developed via a central platform located in 88 metres (289 ft) of water. The Fleming and Hawkins fields were discovered in 1980 and the Drake and Seymour Fields in 1982. Development approval was granted in 1994 and production started in 1997. The gas is exported via the Central Area Transmission System through a link to the Everest gasfield. Oil is exported via the Forties oil field to Grangemouth. The fields had a maximum production rate of 450 million cubic feet per day and 24 thousand barrels per day.
Petroleum licensing or exploration license is the act of giving licenses to a company or a joint venture allowing them to search for commercially feasible deposits for the extraction of petroleum.
The Balmoral oil field is a depleted crude oil field in the UK sector of the central North Sea, 225 km north-east of Aberdeen. Oil was produced from the field reservoir by the Balmoral Floating Production Vessel (FPV) between 1986 and 2020. The Balmoral FPV also processed oil from six minor oil fields in the area. Oil production from the field has ceased.
The Argyll oil field is a depleted crude oil field in the UK sector of the central North Sea, 310 km east-south-east of Aberdeen. It was the first field to produce crude oil from the UK offshore continental shelf. Oil was produced between 1975 and 2020 through a series of floating and jack-up production installations. In later phases of development the field was known as Ardmore and then Alma. The adjacent Duncan and Innes fields also processed oil through the Argyll/Ardmore/Alma installation. Oil production from the field has now (2021) ceased.
The K7-K12 gas fields are significant natural gas producing areas in the Netherlands sector of the North Sea, about 130 km west of Den Helder. These six contiguous fields started producing gas in 1978 and are mostly still operational in 2021.