The Harding oilfield is a small oil field operated by TAQA, in the North Sea block 9/23b, approximately 200 mi North-East of Aberdeen and in 110 m of water.[1]
Discovery and development
The field was discovered in 1987, when oil was found in Eocene at a depth of 1850 m. It was originally named the Forth field, but was renamed in 1993 in memory of David Harding who was Chief Executive of BP Exploration's UK operations during the field appraisal.[2] The abundance of naphthenic acid in the oil however made the development unattractive at the time. The crude is heavy and naphthenic and is generally of a lower value compared to other North Sea oils. Consequently, the decision was made to export it by tanker rather than co-mingle it in a pipeline. The oil from the Harding field is therefore stored offshore. The selected development solution was a heavy-duty steel jack-up production unit based on a proprietary design by Technip Geoproduction resting on a concrete gravity base which had storage for 550000 oilbbl of oil.[3]