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£700m BP investment in North Sea Fields.

BP have announced plans to invest £700 million in a North Sea Oil field, in a move set to create more than 1,000 jobs.

The project will develop the Kinnoull reservoir in the central North Sea, and will extend production by at least 10 years. Production from Kinnoull is forecast to peak at 45,000 barrels daily, and will be transported using the CATS pipeline to Teesside.

A new subsea system will be installed to access the new reservoir from the Andrew platform, and will include 28 kilometers of subsea bundles – the longest bundle system in the world.

Modification of the Andrew platform is expected to take 18 months, during which operational work will be undertaken to maintain the existing facilities on the platform.

Some fabrication will take place in the North East, after Duco and Bel in Newcastle, and Heerema in Hartlepool were chosen to construct key items for the modified platform. Duco will produce the 28-kilometre umbilical and Bel will make subsea values, while Heerema will commission and construct the 750 ton process module.

Charles Hendry, Minister of state for Energy and Climate Change said: “I am pleased to see that BP is taking forward the development of the Kinnoull field.

“With around 90% of the development involving UK firms, this is a real big win for our domestic supply chain and shows that the thriving North Sea oil and gas sector continues to deliver economic benefit.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .