BP, as operator and on behalf of co-venturer Shell, has announced encouraging early production from the Alligin field in the west of Shetland region, offshore UK.

Alligin forms part of the Greater Schiehallion Area and has been developed as a two-well subsea tieback into the existing Schiehallion and Loyal subsea infrastructure and the Glen Lyon floating, production, storage, offload (FPSO) vessel.

It is a 20 million barrels of oil equivalent field, which was originally forecast to produce 12,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak.

The project’s performance has been better than expected, however, reaching 15,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak since start-up in late December.

The development has included new subsea infrastructure, consisting of gas lift and water injection pipeline systems, and a new controls umbilical.

BP North Sea Regional President Ariel Flores said: “Achieving first oil from the Alligin field safely, under budget and ahead of schedule is testament to the performance of the project team and their agile approach to planning and execution.

“Alligin is part of BP’s advantaged oil strategy, a development with a shorter project cycle time with oil that is economic to produce and low risk to bring to market. Subsea tiebacks like this complement our major start-ups and help underpin our growing portfolio west of Shetland.

Alligin (BP 50% operator; Shell 50%) is part of a series of infrastructure-led subsea tieback developments in the North Sea, accessing new production from fields located near to established producing infrastructure.