Developments in a New Field

摘要

Ramco Energy is an independent Scottish oil and gas company. The Seven Heads project is the cornerstone of Ramco's strategy in Ireland and is therefore of considerable importance to the company. The development has required technical advances to gain clarity in the reservoir, contractual innovation to enable a small team to develop a substantial project and persistence as partnership and contractual challenges have arisen. This article describes how the careful implementation of appropriate reservoir evaluation technology has improved the understanding of the Seven Heads gas accumulation, enabling the partnership to confirm sufficient recoverable reserves to support a development. It also describes how advances in subsea technology have reduced the development cost to the point where the project is economically robust. The project is also important to the Irish State, bringing only the third offshore oil and gas development ashore, increasing indigenous energy supply and providing direct economic benefits in the form of jobs and taxes. Whilst the Ramco-led partnership has also submitted an Outset Development View and applied for a Lease Undertaking for Oil relating to a deeper oil accumulation, this will not be discussed in this article.