CNOOC Limited announced today (November 29) that the Buzzard Phase II development, offshore UK North Sea has safely commenced production.

Buzzard Phase II is located approximately 100 kilometers North-east of Aberdeen, United Kingdom with average water depth of approximately 96 metres.

While fully utilizing the existing Buzzard facility, the project has also built a set of underwater production systems. Two production wells and two water injection wells have been brought on stream. Buzzard Phase II is expected to reach its peak production of approximately 12,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2022, increasing Buzzard’s production to 80,000 BOEPD in total.

Mr. Xia Qinglong, president of CNOOC Limited said: “We are very pleased with the commencement of production at Buzzard Phase II. Constant development of the field will strongly promote the growth of the Company's overseas production in the future.”


CNOOC Petroleum Europe Limited (CNOOC Europe), a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, is the operator of Buzzard and has 43.21% interest. The remaining interests are held by Suncor Energy (29.89%), Harbour Energy (21.73%) and ONE-Dyas (5.16%).

CNOOC Europe engaged early and collaboratively with the supply chain to build competitive offers for project Alliance to deliver the Buzzard Phase II (BPII) development.

The chosen BPII Project Alliance - AGR Well Management, Baker Hughes, COSL Drilling Europe AS, Subsea 7 and Worley - was selected as it offered an integrated, collaborative and outcome-focused approach.

Scott McGinigal, vice president - business services, said: “This was a large, complex project was delivered safely, within the sanctioned budget and on the revised project schedule, which was significantly impacted by the CV19 pandemic. Achieving all of the major construction and commissioning scopes during the pandemic is testament to the hard work and collaboration with our BPII Project Alliance and Buzzard co-venturers.”

CNOOC Europe is progressing a comprehensive range of near and medium-term emissions reduction opportunities to deliver on the North Sea Transition Deal and net zero targets.

This includes investigating options to decarbonise Buzzard’s electrical power, which is being worked collaboratively with other Outer Moray Firth (OMF) operators who form the OMF Electrification group, chaired by CNOOC Europe.

Craig Paveley, vice president - developments, said: “We’re focused on sustaining production on Buzzard through BPII, interventions, future infill and more, while progressing significant emissions reduction opportunities to deliver on the North Sea Transition Deal and net zero targets.”

More like this…

View all