Mobil North Sea is the major partner in the Beryl, Ness, Nevis, Katrine, Buckland and Skene fields in the Northern North Sea.

The Beryl Alpha platform began producing oil in 1976 and the Beryl Bravo produced first oil in 1984. Twenty-five years later, Beryl's success story continues as technological and engineering innovations extend its lifespan. Today, the Beryl area produces as much oil and gas as it did 10 years ago - around 100,000 barrels of oil a day.

Ness, Nevis North and Nevis South and Katrine satellite fields produce from remotely controlled sub-sea wellheads, technology in which ExxonMobil is an acknowledged leader.

The Buckland field, a subsea satellite tied back to the Beryl Alpha platform, was developed by MNS in only 16 months and came on stream in 1999, beating initial targets to yield 33,000 barrels a day.

Oil from the fields is loaded directly offshore into tankers for transhipment to refineries in the UK and around the world.

Gas is exported through the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) pipeline to the MNS-operated plant at St Fergus. The 30-inch SAGE pipeline stretches 217 miles and has a capacity of 32.6 million standard cubic metres per day.

The £250 million Skene project began producing in December 2001. Skene will produce up to 180 million cubic feet of gas per day, plus up to 25,000 barrels of associated liquids. Gas will be exported through the SAGE pipeline.

On 8 April 2002, MNS announced first production from the Lewis 1 well, which is an extension of the successful Nevis South development. The well is expected to produce around 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

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