Total battles to extend life of North Sea field

Extreme technical conditions and declining production — Total’s Elgin Franklin platform in the North Sea shows the challenges of oil that is becoming scarcer and harder to reach.

To the untrained eye a 33,000 tonne jumble of interlaced pipes perched 22 metres above the freezing waters of the North Sea, Elgin pumps 7 percent of Britain’s oil and gas output.

It operates four fields as deep as 6 km below the sea bed, where high drilling temperatures and pressure make the oil search like trying to make a hole in a pressure cooker.
Reuters