Exploration
As the initial licence block holder, Transworld Petroleum (UK) with Texaco made the first well into the field in Aug 1974. In the next two years a further three appraisal wells were drilled in the area. However this proved to be very difficult area to extract from: tests revealed an extremely complex and fractured field, and two of the appraisal drills were eventually lost. BP was then farmed in to become the operator of the field in 1977.
Buchan was initial described as a “small field of uncertain reserve potential” (Hill 1979). Early estimates were for reserves of approximately 50 million barrels (7,900,000 m3) of oil. Some estimates though suggested upwards of 120 million barrels (19,000,000 m3) of oil might be extractable depending on further capital expenditure and the ability of the reservoir. Production of the field began in May 1981 and reached peak production capacity in May 1983, when the field was producing 32,000 barrels per day (5,100 m3/d).
Further fields have been discovered in the Buchan field area. The Buchan North Satellite field was discovered shortly after the main field. The nearby Hannay Field, discovered in 1996, is tied back to the Buchan Alpha rig.
Read more about this topic: Buchan Oil Field
Famous quotes containing the word exploration:
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Typography tended to alter language from a means of perception and exploration to a portable commodity.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as he coasted by....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)