A North Sea oil and gas field discovered almost 40 years ago in 1975 has finally been given multi-million pound development approval after engineers broke new ground to overcome formidable technical challenges and the government provided new financial incentives.

Chevron, the developer and one of pioneers of North Sea oil, announced production in the Alder field is expected to start in 2016 and build up to a design capacity of 110m cubic feet of gas a day and 14,000 barrels a day of condensate.

“The Alder project builds on Chevron’s already well-established presence in the U.K. energy development sector,” said Todd Levy, president of Chevron Europe, Eurasia and Middle East Exploration and Production. “For more than 50 years Chevron has been active in the U.K.’s oil and gas industry, and we will continue to play a role in developing the region’s natural resources.”

Michael Fallon, energy minister, described the project as a “showcase of British excellence”. Around 75% of the development work has gone to UK based companies with three major contractors handling £200m worth of orders.

The field was one of the earliest North Sea discoveries but has proved to be one of the most complex projects tackled by engineers in high pressure, high temperature reservoirs 100 miles from the Scottish coastline and less than 40 miles from the UK and Norway median line.

Engineers finally decided on developing the field via a single subsea well tied back to the existing Britannia Platform, the pipe-in-pipe will will be fabricated by Technip and laid by the Deep Energy pipe-lay vessel over a distance of 17 miles. Gas will be exported to the St Fergus terminal on the Scottish mainland and a new module installed on Britannia will process the condensate.

Chevron considered a series of development programmes before coming to terms with the temperature problem but says new allowances introduced by the government two years ago have influenced the decision to go ahead.

“The Alder Field development is an important milestone in support of our strategic plan to profitably grow production and is among our solid queue of major capital projects that will deliver value to shareholders,” said Chevron vice chairman George Kirkland.

The government hopes the allowance, designed to encourage the development of small fields, will result in other projects gaining approval.

Craig May, managing director of Chevron Upstream Europe, said the development was a combination of technology, commercial conditions and knowledge sharing on high pressure, high temperature experience.

In the last five years alone, Chevron estimates it has contributed £10bn to the UK economy.

Contractors involved with the Alder field

Technip was awarded a contract in July 2013 for engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of the complete subsea system of Alder. Contractual scope includes the supply of main subsea manifold, subsea isolation valve manifold, pipe-in-pipe flow line, umbilical and the tie-in spools.

The contract will be executed by Technip's operating centre in Aberdeen, UK.

Genesis, a subsidiary of Technip Group, will be responsible for the detailed design under the contract. The pipe-in-pipe will be fabricated at Technip's Evanton spoolbase, Scotland. The umbilical will be manufactured by Technip's subsidiary DUCO in Newcastle, England. Technip's vessels, including the pipelay vessel Deep Energy, will be used for offshore construction.

OneSubsea UK will supply the vertical monobore subsea trees and wellheads for the Alder project.

Aker Solutions was awarded the contract for the design, manufacture and supply of the subsea control system for the oil field development. The contract includes the hydraulic and electrical equipments to be installed at subsea location, as well as on the Britannia BLP.

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