Chloride Contamination on the Groundwater, Soil and Plants - Coursework Example

The Wytch Farm Oilfield is the largest known onshore field in the UK, it lies beneath the southern shores of Poole harbour in an area of outstanding natural beauty famous for its landscape, ecology and amenity value (BP Petroleum Development, 1986).The Wytch Farm Oilfield, with its approximately 300 million barrels of recoverable oil, is useful to the oil industry and to the local and national economy. It produces in the present time around 70,000 barrels (approximately 11,365,000 litres) of oil per day.

The oilfield consists of two major reservoirs, the shallower Bridport reservoir at 900 meters under the surface (BP Exploration, 1994) this reservoir was discovered in 1974, and later, it was developed to produce 4,000 barrels of crude oil per day (BP Petroleum Development, 1986). The larger and more productive reservoir is the Sherwood reservoir, which is about 1500 meters below the surface (BP Exploration, 1994). The deeper reservoir (Sherwood reservoir) was discovered in 1978 but it remains under-developed.

Production testing from one Sherwood well has increased and nowadays production is about 5,500 barrels of oil per day (BP Petroleum Development, 1986). The location of Wytch Farm is on the southern shores of Pool Harbour. This area is a sensitive landscape that includes a number of conversation designations. Crude oil is extracted from the Wytch Farm, Wareham and Kimmeridge Oil fields. Oil and well fluids are transported to the Gathering Station for processing via a network of underground pipes.

Oil from Kimmeridge is brought to the Gathering Station by road tankers. At the Gathering Station, oil separated from water and gasses. Water is re-injected into the reservoirs. The sales gas is exported to the national system. In addition, gas processing results in fuel gas that is used on-site for power generation. Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) is transported to Furzebrook Rail Terminal via carrier underground pipelines before being transported by rail to BP Oil’s Avonmouth Terminal.