Wytch Farm
| Wytch Farm | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Location | Dorset |
| Coordinates | 50°39′37″N 2°02′12″W / 50.66017°N 2.03673°WCoordinates: 50°39′37″N 2°02′12″W / 50.66017°N 2.03673°W |
| Operator | Perenco |
| Field history | |
| Discovery | 1973 |
| Start of production | 1979 |
| Production | |
| Current production of oil | 50,000 barrels per day (~3.1×106 t/a) |
| Year of current production of oil | 2002 |
| Peak of production (oil) | 110,000 barrels per day (~6.9×106 t/a) |
| Estimated oil in place | 65.40 million tonnes (~ 60.78×106 m3 or 382.3 MMbbl) |
| Estimated gas in place | 1.42×109 m3 (50×109 cu ft) |
Wytch Farm is an oil field and processing facility in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. It is the largest onshore oil field in western Europe. The facility, recently taken over by Perenco was previously operated by BP. It is hidden in a coniferous forest on Wytch Heath on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, two miles (3.2 km) north of Corfe Castle. Oil and natural gas (methane) are both exported by pipeline; liquefied petroleum gas is exported by road tanker.
The oil field drew its name from the neighbouring Wytch Farm which had existed on the site for many centuries on the fringes of Wytch Heath.
The Isle of Purbeck's oil shale, or "Kimmeridge Coal" which has been won from the cliffs to the east of Kimmeridge since the early 17th century, is no longer used commercially. Similar deposits were found at Wytch Farm in the 1890s, but were commercially exploited until only circa 1900, and only at a low level. The Kimmeridge Oil and Carbon Company reported that in 1890 it had dug 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of underground tunnels at Kimmeridge on four levels into the local cliffs. There was a local jetty to export the oil shale, and smaller operations occurred at nearby Bencliff Grit east of Osmington Mills.
Isle of Purbeck's oil industry began in 1936 with the first unsuccessful and then experimental wells drilled at Broad Bench near Kimmeridge by D'Arcy Exploration. The area had long been mined for oil shale and tar, but was only prospected for crude oil in the 1950s. It was not until 1959 that a borehole at Kimmeridge showed that oil was seeping out, and 1960 saw British Petroleum's Kimmeridge Oil Field discovered.
The field was discovered by the nationalised British Gas Corporation in December 1973 and began producing oil in 1979. As part of the privatisation of British Gas in the 1980s Wytch Farm was sold to BP which took over as operator in 1984. In May 2011, BP announced that it had agreed to sell its majority interest in Wytch Farm to Perenco, which became the new operator.Premier Oil has a 30.1% stake in the field.BP announced May 17, 2011, the sale of its interests in the Wytch Farm, Wareham, Beacon and Kimmeridge fields to Perenco and the sale of the Dimlington gas terminal to Perenco in February 2011. In September 2012, Perenco UK applied to Dorset County Council (DCC) for permission to extend the life of 39 planning permissions at three of the oilfields. DCC’s Planning Committee recommended approval of the applications on 6 September 2013, thereby extending the operational life of the oilfields beyond their original end-date of 2016 to 2037.
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