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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R T H E U K O F F S H O R E O I L A N D G A S I N D U S T R Y
Subsea solutions
Subsea technology has a crucial role to play in maximising recovery from the
UK Continental Shelf.
Wireline
catches up with Chevron and GE Oil & Gas to
find out more about the challenges and opportunities ahead.
“H
istorically, technology
has repeatedly extended
industry’s capabilities
into new frontier areas and enabled
developments that were previously
uneconomic,” notes Craig May,
managing director of Chevron Upstream
Europe. This vital role of technology
stands true today, not least in the subsea
arena, as the UK Continental Shelf
(UKCS) enters its next, more complex,
phase of development.
“The offshore oil and gas industry has
been applying subsea technology since the
mid-1970s and the UK is widely regarded
as occupying a world-leading position
in experience and innovation,” explains
Craig. “Much of this has been developed by
necessity so that currently more than
40 per cent of the UK’s oil and gas comes
from subsea developments.”
With the average field discovery size
decreasing and the industry venturing into
deeper, harsher, more remote environments,
Craig believes, “subsea technology will
play an even greater role in extending the
production life of the UKCS”.
In the pipeline
This is exemplified by Chevron’s ongoing
Alder field project, a technology-led,
28-kilometre subsea tieback to the Britannia
platform in the central North Sea. The
high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT)
gas field was discovered in 1975 but it’s only
GE’s Broadfold Road and Brent Avenue sites in Aberdeen
are primarily responsible for manufacturing subsea
production trees and components such as master valve
blocks (MVBs), before the equipment is installed across
projects in the North Sea and worldwide.
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