Southport – Smell Gas and Oil?

Photo: Liverpool Bay Gas and Oil field /Credit Pat Regan

Smoke has today been billowing from the Liverpool Bay Gas and Oil field. A number of residents contacted OTSnews and complained of being able to smell oil and gas in the air. Gas flaring as it is known is believed to cause cancer if not strictly controlled.

The Liverpool Bay Development – BHP Petroleum’s largest single project worldwide – comprises four oil and gas fields, together with significant offshore and onshore facilities used for extracting, transporting and processing these reserves.

Offshore operations are centred on the Douglas complex – a three-platform facility that monitors and controls the development’s three unmanned satellite platforms at Lennox, Hamilton and Hamilton North. Oil and gas from all four fields are received at Douglas.

The oil – produced from the Lennox and Douglas fields – is then processed, blended and sent through a 20km pipeline, to the offshore storage installation, before being loaded into tankers, for export worldwide.

Gas – extracted from Hamilton and Hamilton North as well as from Lennox – is part-processed on Douglas before it travels via a 34km pipeline to BHP’s state-of-the-art gas terminal, at Point of Ayr, on the North Wales coast.

The total recoverable reserves in Liverpool Bay are currently estimated to be in excess of 150 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion ft³ of gas. With peak oil production expected to average some 70,000 barrels per day, and a peak gas capacity of 300 million ft³ per day, the life of the development is projected to be at least 20 years.

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