BP - 50 Years In The North Sea

26th December 2014

September 2014 marked 50 years since the award to BP of Licence P.001, the UK North Sea licence that started it all. It is a journey that has seen BP present for each of those 50 years and that continues to this day. Today, BP's continues to invest in both the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, developing new fields and extending the life of existing assets.

BP first discovered natural gas in the Southern North Sea in 1965, when it drilled the West Sole prospect, but that was only the beginning. It was the 1970 discovery of the giant Forties field that transformed the UK energy landscape and turned the North Sea into a globally significant oil and gas region. BP constructed the Forties Pipeline System (FPS) and, in November 1975, the UK received its first North Sea oil to shore.

By 1990, BP had started up more than 15 fields in the UK North Sea and four in the Norwegian North Sea. The Foinaven and Schiehallion discoveries in the early 1990s allowed BP to pioneer development west of the Shetland Islands, as the company continued to push back the frontiers and make a major contribution to meeting energy demand.

BP's leading position in the North Sea also sees it at the forefront of the application of offshore technology. Schiehallion was the world's largest purpose-built floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and the Clair Ridge development will see the world’s first offshore full-field deployment of low-salinity water injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

Against the global energy industry’s ever-shifting landscape, BP has defined its strategy for a robust future in the North Sea, sharpening its portfolio to focus on core higher-value assets with long-term growth potential. Overall, BP and its joint venture partners are investing over £10billion in new field developments and redevelopments, while also conducting major renewal programmes on several existing assets.

The company is redeveloping the Schiehallion field area with the Quad204 project and a new purpose-built FPSO, as well as extending the life of its Andrew platform with a project to tie-in the Kinnoull field development.

There is no doubt that North Sea oil and gas is harder to find than it was in the 1970s, but BP’s long-term commitment to the North Sea has remained consistent. Today, we employ almost 4,000 BP and agency staff in the North Sea and BP remains one of the region’s leading producers and investors.

BP believes there is still plenty of potential in the North Sea and plans to continue to operate in the region for many years to come.