Apache North Sea are now using the EnergySys Production Allocation Cloud on their Forties and Bacchus fields in the UK North Sea.
Ross Littlewood, Production Engineering Team Lead for Apache, talked to David Petherick about why they selected their production reporting solution, and how the project was implemented.
1: What were your reporting requirements?
Apache North Sea developed the Bacchus field as a subsea tieback to Forties Alpha. The development consists of 2 subsea wells, subsea production manifold, 6.7km long pipeline bundle, SSIV manifold and riser caisson. The Bacchus fluids arrive on the platform and are metered via a multiphase flowmeter or by the platform test separator before being commingled and processed with the Forties Alpha wells. The Bacchus field comes under a different tax regime from the Forties field and has different partner interests, therefore, metering, allocation and production reporting are crucial. The production reporting software we were using was obsolete and could not be readily modified for the Bacchus field requirements.
2. How did you realise you could carry out this process using our software?
A study was conducted to identify the best production reporting software available on the market. EnergySys was identified as being the most appropriate as it is rapid to deploy, user friendly and cost effective. It also had the flexibility to incorporate any future field developments with minimal rework.
3. What tools and training had to be put in place?
As the system is user friendly minimal training was required to operate the system. The only tools required were automatic data transfer from the Apache systems to Energysys however this was an Apache requirement to keep manual data entry to a minimum, which has worked well, resulting in fewer reports having to be reissued.
4. What benefits have you gained from having the EnergySys reporting system in place?
Production reports are sent out to various end users, including the Bacchus partners, with minimal intervention required from the production reporting team. The system is user friendly and the reports are relatively easy to modify.