[UK] Alder

escveritas
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[UK] Alder

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The Alder Field

In November 2016, nearly 40 years after its discovery, first gas was achieved from the Alder field. In 2018, Alder’s daily production averaged 4,094 barrels of gas condensate and 57.98 million standard cubic feet of natural gas.

Discovered in 1975 in Block 15/29a, Alder is a high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) gas condensate field, approximately 17 miles (28 km) to the west of the Britannia field. When discovered, the UK oil and gas industry was still in its infancy and focused on developing “elephant” discoveries. It wasn’t until 2009, that advances in subsea innovation and technology, and the availability of throughput at the host platform, Britannia, made Alder possible.

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Maximising Recovery of UK Resources

The most cost-effective development solution for Alder, located 100 miles (160 km) east of Scotland in the Central North Sea, was to tie the field back to Britannia, in which Ithaca Energy holds a 32.38 percent non-operated working interest, via an advanced 17-mile (28 km) subsea pipeline.

To successfully receive and process the gas, Britannia required significant modification including the installation of a new processing module, which was safely and successfully installed in July 2015. Weight was limited, so lighter, specialty steels had to be used to build the new 850 metric tonne module. The "brownfield" scope for the existing platform was as challenging as the module design itself, involving extensive offshore work on a producing platform.

Throughout 2016, a number of milestones were achieved as the Alder development moved towards first production. These included drilling the Alder reservoir section to total depth and safely and successfully installing the tubing head spool, the subsea protection covers, the subsea isolation valve and the manifold.

Alder produced gas condensate (a mixture of hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas) is processed at new dedicated facilities on the Britannia platform. Condensate and gas is then exported to Scotland-based terminals at Grangemouth and the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation, St Fergus, respectively.

Applying Technology and Innovation

The development of Alder has been enabled through the application of innovative subsea technologies designed to meet the temperature and pressure challenges of the field.

Key technologies have included a number of firsts in the North Sea, including a vertical mono-bore subsea tree system; a subsea high integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS); and a specially designed corrosion monitoring system to measure the real-time condition of the 17-mile production pipeline.

The Alder field is operated by Ithaca Energy (UK) Limited (73.68 percent); Chrysaor Limited holds a 26.32 percent non-operated working interest in the field.
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