Harding oilfield
The Harding oilfield is a small oil field operated by TAQA, in the North Sea block 9/23b, approximately 200 miles (320 km) North-East of Aberdeen and in 110 metres (360 ft) of water.
Discovery and development
The field was discovered in 1987, when oil was found in Eocene at a depth of 1,850 metres (6,070 ft). The abundance of naphthenic acid in the oil however made the development unattractive at the time. The crude is heavy and naphthenic and is generally of a lower value compared to other North Sea oils. Consequently, the decision was made to export it by tanker rather than co-mingle it in a pipeline. The oil from the Harding field therefore requires to be stored offshore. The selected development solution was a heavy-duty steel jack-up production unit based on a proprietary design by Technip Geoproduction resting on a concrete gravity base which had storage for 550,000 barrels (87,000 m3) of oil.
Reservoir
The Harding field is in fact composed of five separate reservoirs. The largest is the central field, hosting most of the wells as well as the site of the gas re-injection. There is also smaller fields to the North, North-East, South and South-East, all named as such. This has led to a unique well naming system in addition to the traditional use of DTI well numbers and slot numbers, which identifies a well by the particular field in which it has been drilled and its purpose.
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