Piper (oil reservoir)

See also: Piper

Piper was one of largest the oil layers British. It is in the central North Sea, to approximately 190 km of Aberdeen. Discovered in 1973, it presented initial reserves of 1 Gbbls approximately. The production started in 1976 and briefly reached 250 kbbls /j from two platforms ( Piper-Alpha and Piper Cheer ). The operator was the Californian company Occidental Petroleum (shortened in “Oxy”).

The production had already started to strongly decline when the layer obtained a world notoriety tragically, with the explosion of the platform Alpha , on July 6th, 1988, which killed 167 workmen. It was due to an escape of Condensat S. Oxy suspended not only the production of Piper, but also many other British layers, the platforms being modified to improve the security standards.

There remained nevertheless important reserves in the layer, and the other platform, modified, was given in service in 1993. The layer produced again close to 100 kbbls /j in 1995, then declined second once. Current production (approximately 10 kbbls/j) and the remaining reserves are marginal.

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