Britannia: Preparing For Superior Operational Performance
Authors: Hemmens Philip D. 
Published: December 2007

To move into operations on the Britannia Field, Britannia Operator Limited (BOL), a joint operating company of Conoco and Chevron, has developed a highly focused integrated organization intent on becoming the lowest cost safe operator in the Central North Sea. Building from the success of the Britannia Project in developing a true profit sharing alliance of main contractors BOL has developed a similar arrangement with a contractor for development of the operating organization. An OMSC contractor, Atlantic Power, will provide Operations, Maintenance and Services Contract support to BOL with KCA for Drilling services. Together the companies developed a management system for BOL that is focused on delivering highly specific business performance indicators, and both contractor profit and personnel gain share will be driven off these which form the basis for the Britannia Business Plan. This paper compares the organization and goals originally envisaged in 1994 and those now in existence.

Introduction

The Britannia Field is situated 210 kilometres (130 miles) north-east of Aberdeen and covers approximately 112 square kilometres (70 square miles) (Figure 1). It underlies a separate oil field, Alba, which was discovered by Chevron in Block 16126 in 1984 and has been on stream since 1994. Britannia's reserves of gas and condensate are held in cretaceous sandstone at a depth of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet). Once Britannia reaches full production it has the potential (at 740 million standard cubic feet gas per day) to supply 8 percent of the total UK gas demand at plateau period in the early years of production. Britannia's reserves are being developed through a single drilling, production and accommodation platform at the east end of the reservoir. The platform will have 36 well slots and be supported on an eightlegged jacket in 140 metre deep water. There will be a subsea well centre with 14 well slots, located 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of the platform. When the Britannia field was discovered in the mid-1970's it was given different names by two of the oil companies which held interests in the five separate licensing blocks it straddled. To Conoco it was Lapworth; to Chevron it was Kilda. Their agreement on the name "Britannia" was to become a symbol of the spirit of cooperation which has underlain the entire development philosophy and which embraces not only the interests of the co-ventures in the field but also the hundreds of specialist companies involved in bringing the project to successful completion. This paper does not address the highly successful Britannia Project but instead focuses on how we plan to build on this spirit of co-operation to deliver superior performance as we move into operations.

Britannia Operator Limited

For the first time in the 28 year history of North Sea exploration and production it was decided that the role of field operator would be shared between two "operating companies". Britannia Operator Limited (BOL) was formed by joint operators Chevron and Conoco to develop and operate the field on behalf of their co-ventures: Union Texas Britannia, Saga Petroleum UK, Phillips Petroleum Company UK and Texaco North Sea UK. Agreement was reached in late 1994 on fixed equity interests. This single entity BOL as Britannia Duty Holder interacts with suppliers and contractors under authority vested in it by the unit operating agreement.

Britannia Operator Limited has a vision to be the "best in class regional operator" by the year 2000. To achieve this it has set itself a mission to delivery superior performance in the areas of:–safety performance–environmental performance–people plus (ensuring people are the best they can be)–maximisation of revenue–minimisation of cost

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