The Fife Field, UK central North Sea

Abstract

The Fife Field is located in the far southeastern part of the Central North Sea Basin close to the UK, Norwegian, Danish median line. The field is a shallow relief four-way dip closure formed by inversion during Late Cretaceous/ early Tertiary times. The reservoir consists of thick Upper Jurassic, heavily bioturbated sandstones which are considered to have been deposited in a similar setting to the Fulmar Formation. The depth to the top of the Upper Jurassic at the crest of the field is 8250 ft sub-sea with the oil-water contact at 8512 ft sub-sea. The seal to reservoir is provided by Volgian-Ryazanian shales of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation and Upper Cretaceous Chalk. Although Jurassic sandstones form the primary reservoir, additional hydrocarbons have been encountered in the Tor Formation of the Chalk Group which is fractured over the crest of the field. The Fife Field was discovered in 1991 and is currently under development. Production started in August 1995 via the 'Uisge Gorm' Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility (FPSO). STOIIP is estimated at 132 x 106BBL and ultimate recovery is predicted to be 34 x 106 BBL oil. The low mobility of the oil and the low vertical permeability of the reservoir contribute to the predicted low (26%) recovery efficiencies.