ABERDEEN, Scotland. Published: July 23, 2013 — Chevron oil has said today that it would spend $770 million, on its planned Rosebank and Alder oil and gas development projects in British waters.
Rosebank, an oil and natural gas field, is on what is becoming one of Europe’s key fossil-fuels frontier areas, the margins of the Atlantic Ocean west of the Shetland Islands off Scotland. Alder, holding gas, is in the central North Sea, which is also attracting major new investments. Northeast Scotland has evolved into the hub of Britain’s and in some respects Europe’s oil industry, with hundreds of suppliers of high-tech services and undersea gear.
Rosebank has required years of work because of the field’s tricky geology. The oil is contained in layers of sandstone sandwiched between volcanic basalt rock, which is difficult to penetrate with seismic imaging technology that the industry uses. Mr. Klein said that to obtain better images of the oil and gas, Chevron put 750 sensors on the sea bottom in 2010 and 2011 and then spent two years analyzing the resulting data. “There is less uncertainty than three years ago,” he said.
Chevron executives in Aberdeen said that recent changes in the British tax system, giving allowances of up to 3 billion pounds for deepwater projects in the area, had made the project viable in Chevron’s portfolio, assuming that oil fields earn $25 per barrel or more. Rosebank, which is in 1,100 meters, or 3,600 feet, of water and is being designed to survive waves of 30 meters, is believed to be the only project that would qualify for those allowances so far.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/bu...obal-home&_r=0