Brae oilfield

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The Brae field is a Scottish oilfield.

It is quite unusual in the North Sea context in that it is a conglomerate pile adjacent to a fault scarp, the whole wrapped up with and interdigitated by claystones of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. The Kimmeridge is thus both the source rock and the cap rock of the field. Since movement on the fault was intermittent, and the flow directions of particular slumps from the fault scarp were pretty random, detailed correlation within the field is complex and frequently uncertain. The total oil leg in the reservoir can be as much as 1600ft in vertical depth, though producible horizons are generally thinner than that.

[edit] Development

Discovered : 1975 (North sector); 1976 (Central sector); 1977 (south sector)

Operator : Marathon

First production : 1983 (South); 1988 (North); 1989 (Central)

The three accumulations total about 70 million tonnes of oil liquids and a further 22 cubic kilometres of gas.

[edit] Future

The main platforms are still producing well from their underlying reserves, with regular infill drilling to identify and exploit undrained pockets in the complex Brae stratigraphy. A number of sub-sea tieback fields in the area produce through facilities on the platforms, extending their viability into the considerable future.