The Forties pipeline system (FPS) is a major

pipeline transport Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

network in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. It is owned and operated by

Ineos INEOS Group Limited is a British multinational chemicals company headquartered and registered in London. , it is the fourth largest chemical company in the world. Ineos is organised into about 20 standalone business units, each with its own ...

and carries 30% of the UK's oil, or about of oil per day, to shore. It carries liquids production from 85 fields in the North Sea and several Norwegian fields on behalf of around 40 companies. The system has a capacity of 575,000 barrels of oil a day. Forties Unity

FPS consists of a pipeline originating at

APA Corporation APA Corporation is the holding company for Apache Corporation, an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston. The company is ranked 431st on the Fortune 500. Current operations ...

Forties Charlie platform Forties can mean: *1940s, the years 1940–1949 * 40s, the years 40-49 AD *The years 40-49 of any century - see List of decades *Long Forties, area in the North Sea *The Forties shipping forecast area (roughly corresponding to the Long Forties) *F ...

. The pipeline carries crude oil , routing through the Forties Unity riser platform, to the terminal at Cruden Bay. From there unstabilised crude is co-mingled with natural gas condensate from the St Fergus terminal and pumped to the processing facility at Kinneil,

Grangemouth Grangemouth ( sco, Grangemooth; gd, Inbhir Ghrainnse, ) is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falkirk ...

. The onshore pipeline has three intermediate pumping stations at Netherley, Brechin and Balbeggie.

History

The original 32-inch pipeline was opened in 1975 to transport oil from the

Forties Oil Field The Forties Oil Field is the second largest oil field in the North Sea, after the Clair oil field, which is located 110 miles east of Aberdeen. It was discovered in 1970 and first produced oil in 1975 under ownership of British Petroleum, now ca ...

, the UK’s first major offshore oil field. The Forties Unity installation was installed in 1992 including new 36-inch pipelines. The 32-inch pipeline was abandoned in situ. It was formerly owned and operated by BP, which retained the asset after selling the

in 2003. In April 2017, BP agreed to sell the pipeline to

for a $125 million upfront payment and an additional $125 million in possible earnouts over 7 years. FPS was out of service from 11 December 2017 due to a crack found the prior week, and returned to full capacity on 30 December 2017.

Throughput

The early oil production from the Forties field (in 1000 barrels) was: The cumulative throughput of crude oil through the Forties system up to the end of 1997 was 552,146,000 tonnes. The recent throughput (in 1000 tonnes) was:

References

External links

INEOS FPS
{{Energy in the United Kingdom, sources BP buildings and structures North Sea energy Pipelines under the North Sea Oil pipelines in the United Kingdom 1975 establishments in Scotland