Mossmorran natural gas liquids fractionation plant at Fife, Scotland, and associated Braefoot Bay marine terminal are to be expanded to process gas expected from future Central North Sea field developments.
Plant and terminal partners Shell U.K. Exploration & Production (Shell Expro) and Esso Exploration & Production U.K. Ltd. have submitted a planning application to authorities.
Shell Expro, U.K. upstream operating company for the Shell-Esso team, said the plan calls for start of construction in 1997, with new facilities due on stream by 2000.
The companies have proposed a 100 million ($150 million) project to add a fourth process module at Mossmorran and a third jetty at Braefoot Bay.
The new process module is expected to increase NGL production capacity to 6.5 million metric tons/year from 4.9 million metric tons/year at present.
A Shell official said about one third of the NGL output will continue to be sent to the Exxon Chemicals plant at Fife for ethylene production. The rest will continue to be exported via Braefoot Bay.
Shell-Esso said the expansion is needed to cope with anticipated additional production from various Central North Sea fields.
The Shell official said added gas for the NGL plant is likely to come from the Brent field redevelopment, as well as development of Egret, Heron, Skua, Teal, and Kingfisher fields among Shell-Esso projects.
Shell-Esso also is said to anticipate third party gas processing business for the plant, particularly from future Central North Sea high temperature/high pressure field development projects.
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
Issue date: 11/21/94
