Forties oil field

, The North Sea

Year

1970 onwards

Duration

58 years

Cost

Unknown

Location

The North Sea

Project achievements

Economy boosted

Billions of pounds of North Sea oil revenue has gone to the Exchequer.

Solved the problem

Find and extract oil that will provide the UK with its own supply.

Used engineering skill

Build and connect oil wells and steel rigs to the mainland – in the middle of the North Sea.

Engineer a network of wells, rigs and platforms to extract oil from the North Sea

The Forties oil field is the largest in the North Sea. 110 miles east of the Scottish city of Aberdeen, it first produced oil in 1975.

In 1965 British Petroleum (BP) had already found natural gas in the region then in 1970 discovered oil. The find contained an estimated 1.8bn barrels.

After 5 years of exploration and construction, Forties field was officially inaugurated by the Queen in November 1975. The scheme was expected to produce 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day, sent through a 32in (81cm) pipeline to refineries near Aberdeen.

By 1978 the field was providing the UK with about a fifth of its annual oil needs. Production peaked at 500,000 barrels a day – well above early predictions.

BP owned and ran the scheme until 2003 when it sold its 96% interest to the US-based Apache Corporation for $812m.

At the time of the sale the field's output was 40,000 barrels a day with production expected to stop by 2013. Apache invested in exploration and infrastructure to boost output to 60,000 barrels by the end of 2004.

Further investment since then means the US company could have extended the field's lifetime by up to 20 years.

BP Forties Field - Rigs, Foundations and Installation

Various members of BP, and and other industry leaders, tell us about the Forties Field which some would say started production in the North Sea.

Did you know …

The sale of the Forties field to Apache Corporation was controversial. Critics said it was like 'selling off the family silver'.
The US company has invested £2.8bn in Forties since it bought the field in 2003.
The field produced the equivalent of 190m barrels of oil between 2003 and 2013.

Difference the oil fields have made

The discovery of the Forties field marked the birth of the wider offshore oil industry. The find brought oil explorers to the region from all over the world.

Oil produced by the field generates billions in tax for the UK government every year.

The wealth created by offshore oil and natural gas contributed to the formation of the Scottish National Party and calls for an independent Scotland.

How the work was done

Engineers working in the Forties field have built 103 oil wells. Of these, 81 are producer wells – producing oil directly - and 22 are injector wells.

Injector wells pump seawater into a reservoir of oil to create pressure so the oil can be extracted from the field.

The 109 wells are all linked to 5 steel structure platforms: Forties Alpha, Forties Bravo, Forties Charlie, Forties Delta and Forties Echo

Engineers designed Forties Charlie platform to act as the central hub and gathering platform for all production at the field. Oil from the platform is pumped to onshore refineries near Aberdeen.

Alpha and Delta platforms were constructed as processing and separation facilities. The Echo platform is solely a processing facility.

The Bravo platform handles production fluid from the field. Production fluid is a mixture of oil, gas and water.

Recent work at Forties saw engineers construct the Forties Alpha satellite platform. Weighing about 17,000 tonnes, the structure is connected to the existing Alpha platform by a 90m bridge.

The new facility was designed to boost Alpha platform's capacity to produce oil and gas.