OT05601 | PRT: commingling - introduction

Commingling occurs when hydrocarbon from one field is mixed with hydrocarbon from another during transportation to the UK or its first port of discharge and the hydrocarbon is then sold as a blend.

There are several crude oil blends including Brent, Forties, Flotta, Wytch Farm, Beryl, Maureen and Triton, the latter three of which are commingled and lifted offshore. The number of contributing fields in each varies from two (Wytch Farm/Wareham) to over 20 in Brent (which from August 1990 includes the Ninian system) and over 30 in Forties.

Similarly a number of commingled gas systems exist usually named by reference to the pipeline or terminal i.e. SAGE, CATS, FLAGS, LOGGS and Bacton-Shell, Bacton-Amoco, Bacton Phillips/Arco, Easington, Theddlethorpe-V Fields, Dimlington, although some bear the name of fields i.e. Fulmar and Frigg.

Contributing fields to commingled systems are constantly changing and are not therefore listed here. Full up to date details of each pipeline can be obtained from Wood MacKenzie North Sea Service, which is updated on a regular basis, under the heading Pipeline Systems and Terminals.