Elgin–Franklin fields
Fossil fuel deposit in the North Sea
The Elgin–Franklin fields are two adjacent gas condensate fields located in the Central Graben Area of the North Sea 240 kilometres (130 nmi) east of Aberdeen, Scotland at a water depth of 93 metres (305 ft). The joint development of the Elgin and Franklin fields is the largest high pressure high temperature development in the world, and also contains the world's hottest, highest temperature field, West Franklin, and the Glenelg field.
On 25 March 2012, a gas leak occurred at the Elgin platform resulting in a shut down of production and evacuation of personnel. The leak continued for over seven weeks, and was stopped after well intervention work on 16 May 2012. Production from the fields restarted almost a year later, on 9 March 2013.
History
The Franklin field was discovered by well 29/5b-4, drilled by Ultramar in 1985, and appraised by wells 29/5b-6z in 1989/1990 and 29/5b-8 in 1991. The field was named after British Explorer Sir John Franklin, and first production was in August 2001.
The Elgin field was discovered by well 22/30c-8 in 1991 and appraised by wells 22/30c-10 in 1992/1993 and 22/30c-13 in 1994, drilled by Elf Aquitaine. The field was named after the Scottish town of Elgin. It is also named as a tribute to a geologist named Nigel who was instrumental in the field's discovery, Elgin is an anagram of Nigel.
“Elgin–Franklin fields” enters the record as fossil fuel deposit in the North Sea. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Elgin, Franklin and fields can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5247394. Authority coordinates are 57.167, 2.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2013, 1985 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “Elgin–Franklin fields” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.