Fram UK Oil Field

Summary Information

• Operator: Shell
• Country: UK
• Location: In the Central North Sea primarily within UKcS blocks 29/3c, 29/8a, (P.012), 29/9c and 29/4c
• Production start:
• Partners:
• Type: Oil / Gas
• Estimated Reserves:
• Production Volume:

Description

• The Fram Project will lie in approximately 97 m water depth, around 220 km southeast of aberdeen, 50 km west of the UK/Norway transboundary line, and 20 km north east of the existing curlew Floating Production, Storage and offloading (FPSo) facility
• the project will comprise:
  • The Fram FPSO facility is to receive and process the fluids from the Fram reservoir and export the crude oil and gas at export specification;
  • two drilling centres each located circa 2.2 km from the FPSO designated as Drilling centre east (Dce) and Drilling centre West (DcW).
  • nine wells will be drilled: three oil producers and two gas-condensate producers at Dce; two oil producers and one gas-condensate producer at DcW; and one dedicated produced water reinjection (PWrI) well located approximately 2km north of Dce;
  • a dedicated 3km PWrI trenched flexible flow line to feed the PWrI well with a trenched 2km control umbilical connecting the PWrI well to Dce;
  • an integrated flowline bundle with the Dce and DcW manifolds incorporated into the towheads at each end. the subsea wells will connect to their respective manifolds. two off midline structures, will enable flexible risers to connect between the bundle and the FPSo; and
  • oil export by shuttle tanker with gas export via a new 18 km pipeline into the existing Fulmar Gas Pipeline (FGL) to St Fergus.
  • Produced water will be treated and re-injected. overboard discharge of treated produced water will provide contingency disposal capacity during start-up and PWrI down-time.

Contractors

• **SBM Offshore:** Award for the supply, lease and operation of an FPSO
• **Subsea 7:** Engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a 4.5km in-field pipeline bundle of approximately 44-inch diameter, with integrated manifolds and tie-in structures

History

• 1969 - The Fram field was first discovered
• 1999 - The first appraisal well (29/3a-6) was drilled
• 2012 - SBM Offshore receives interim award for Fram FPSO
• 2012 - The government gave Shell consent for the development
• 2013 - Subsea 7 awarded pipeline contract
• 2021 - Exxon sells its stake to HitecVision

Links

1. Fram Project environmental Statement
2. SBM Offshore receives interim award for Fram FPSO from Shell
3. New oil and gas field will add two percent to UK daily production
4. Shell to develop Fram field in the UK North Sea
5. Subsea 7 Awarded US$135m Shell Fram Contract
6. ExxonMobil to sell U.K. upstream central and northern North Sea assets