As the Heather oilfield celebrates 25 years production, and comes to the end of its own economic life, development of the West Heather and North Terrace satellites will revitalise production from the area, and prolong the use of Heather platform for another ten years.

The West Heather and North Terrace oil accumulations were discovered and appraised in the late 1970s, at a time when the then Heather partners were endeavouring to find additional oil to supplement the disappointing production from the Heather field. The results of this drilling were not sufficiently promising to warrant further investment, and after 1987 no further drilling by the original field owners was undertaken.

A change of Operatorship in 1997, and acquisition of new 3-D seismic data led to further exploration and appraisal drilling in the West Heather area, and significant oil volumes in better quality reservoir has been discovered. The new accumulation is being developed as a subsea satellite, tied back to the Heather platform via a 7 km flowline system. It is planned to bring on the neighbouring North Terrace oil accumulation via this subsea system as part of a phased development.

This paper describes the West Heather development and the main factors that have led to bringing it to the point of sanction. These have been the attraction of Upper Jurassic exploration plays, the recognition of upside Brent reservoir potential in the area, investment by new Partners with an innovative business model for managing technical and financial risk, and the incentive of deferring Heather decommissioning.

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