BP on Oct. 22 confirmed it has received approval from the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to proceed with the Alligin development west of Shetland, which will target 20 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), and is expected to produce 12,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak.

Alligin is located 140 km west of Shetland in a water depth of 475 m. It forms part of the Greater Schiehallion Area.

The Alligin development will consist of two wells, which will be tied-back into the existing Schiehallion and Loyal subsea infrastructure, utilizing the processing and export facilities of the Glen Lyon floating, production storage, offload (FPSO) vessel. It is expected to come on stream in 2020.

The development will include new subsea infrastructure, consisting of gas lift and water injection pipeline systems, and a new controls umbilical. The wells will be drilled by the Deepsea Aberdeen rig.

Alligin (BP 50% operator; Shell 50%) is part of a series of infrastructure-led subsea tie-back developments in the North Sea, accessing new production from fields located near to established producing infrastructure.

This is BP’s second North Sea development approval in the past two months. Vorlich, which targets 30 MMboe, received regulatory approval in September. BP’s Clair Ridge development is expected to start-up later this year. It is expected to target 640 MMbbl of resources and have a peak production of 120,000 bbl/d.

BP also has 32% stake in the North Sea Culzean development, which is expected to supply around 5% of UK gas requirements. First gas is anticipated in 2019.

Earlier this year, BP was awarded seven licenses, five as operator and two as partner, in the North Sea’s 30th Offshore Licensing Round. And in January, BP announced two new discoveries in the North Sea at Capercaillie in the Central North Sea and Achmelvich west of Shetland.

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