Chevron has launched production at its Alder field in the Central North Sea.

Discovered in 1975, development of the gas condensate field was considered impossible, due to the challenges of high pressures and high temperatures (HPHT) in the field’s reservoir, lying 4,480 meters beneath the seabed.

The development has been enabled, Nearly 40 years later, through the application of innovative subsea technologies designed to meet the temperature and pressure challenges of Alder. Key technologies have included a vertical mono-bore subsea tree system; a subsea high integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS); and a specially designed corrosion monitoring system to measure the real-time condition of the production pipeline.

Alder is a single subsea well tied back, via a 28 kilometer pipeline, to the existing ConocoPhillips-operated Britannia platform.

Production from the HPHT Alder field is expected to ramp up over the coming months. The project has a design capacity of 14,000 barrels of condensate and 110 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Source: Chevron