Clair South Oil and Gas Field (United Kingdom)

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Clair South Oil and Gas Field is a discovered oil and gas field in United Kingdom.

Along with Clair Phase 1 Oil and Gas Field (United Kingdom) and Clair Ridge Oil and Gas Field (United Kingdom), Clair South Oil and Gas Field is a part of the Clair complex.

Clair South Oil and Gas Field is also sometimes referred to as Clair Phase 3.

Project Details

Main Data

Table 1: Field-level project details for Clair South Oil and Gas Field

¹Final Investment Decision
²If a country or region is known to not produce any hydrocarbons in an unconventional method, this production type is assumed to be conventional

Unit name	Status	Operator	Owner	Discovery year	FID1 year	Production start year	Production type2
Clair South	Discovered	BP	BP (45.11%); Harbour Energy (7.5%); Shell (27.97%); Chevron (19.42%)	1977	2025 (expected)	2027 (expected)	Conventional

Production and Reserves

Table 2: Reserves of Clair South Oil and Gas Field

million boe = million barrels of oil equivalent

Fuel description	Reserves classification	Quantity	Units	Data year	Source
hydrocarbons	estimated reserves	293	million boe	2022	​
hydrocarbons	estimated resources	82	million boe	2023	​

Location

Table 3: Field-level location details for Clair South Oil and Gas Field

Concession/Block	Location	Onshore/Offshore	Coordinates (WGS 84)
206/7a, 206/8a, 206/9a, 206/12a, and 206/13a	Offshore, United Kingdom	Offshore	60.6668, -2.783 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the field(s) within the Clair complex:

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Background

Clair South oil field, also known as Clair field phase 3 development project, is located 75 km west of the Shetland Islands in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), at a depth of about 140 meters. Clair field covers five license blocks: 206/7a, 206/8a, 206/9a, 206/12a, and 206/13a, and is operated on the P168, P165, P170, and P169 licenses.

Clair Phase 1 Oil and Gas Field (United Kingdom) was discovered in 1977. Clair South is the third development phase of the Clair field. Phase one began production in 2004, phase two (Clair Ridge) in 2019. The field is owned by BP (45.11%, operator), Shell (27.97%), Chevron (19.42%), and Harbour Energy (7.5 %). The field was originally owned by BP (28.6%), Shell (27.97%), Chevron (19.42%), and ConocoPhillips (24%). In July 2018, ConocoPhillips sold its 16.5% stake in the project to BP whose stake increased to 45.11%. ConocoPhillips’ remaining 7.5% stake in the project was acquired by Harbour Energy in September 2019.

On April 30, 2020, BP announced that it was delaying FID on the third phase of the Clair South project in the Shetland Islands from 2021 to 2022 as a result of the global oil price collapse and in an effort to look for input from contractors to “make the development as economically and environmentally competitive as possible.” As of February 2020, first oil production was expected in 2024.

Expected recovery is estimated to be around 293 Mmboe. Friends of the Earth (FOE) estimated total lifecycle emissions from the field at 151 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCo2e).

Articles and Resources

Additional Data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of oil and gas extraction sites, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.