DRILLING has started at Scotland's first onshore oilrig in a move that could become more common as crude prices soar.
The Lybster field takes its name from the Caithness village where work has started to reach the undersea reserves.
The developers, Caithness Petroleum, believe the rig could bring in up to 1,000 barrels a day by the end of this year.
They said
drilling from a land base is cheaper, easier and safer than offshore. With the cost of crude oil rising to $146 a barrel it is thought other companies will examine the possibility of exploration from the land to exploit depleting reserves.
Banchory-based Reach Exploration carried out research work and its survey indicated potential reserves in the Lybster field, in the Inner Moray Firth, of between three and four million barrels of oil.
It was discovered 12 years ago but was considered too expensive by the major oil companies to drill using offshore platforms at the time.
But recent technological advances have allowed it to become only the second oilfield in the UK to be drilled from the land, after Wytch Farm in Dorset.
Both use an "extended reach" system that in Lybster involves a 100ft-high platform built onshore a few hundred metres from cliff edges.
Rob Gibson, a Highlands and Islands MSP, said: "This is a signal for a new start for Caithness. The potential for onshore oil drilling is huge. There is more oil under land than there is under the sea in Scotland that has yet to be retrieved.
"Onshore drilling allows us to retrieve more of our own oil and therefore boost oil security for Scotland."
The drill will be extended 3.5km to the reservoir some 5,000ft below the sea. After being pumped ashore it is planned to take the oil by road to the Nigg terminal in Easter Ross.
Peter O'Sullivan, chief operating officer of Caithness Petroleum, said it is hoped the field will be reached by September and oil will be recovered by the end of this year.
"When this field was discovered using a jack up rig offshore the price of oil was about $20 a barrel. So a combination of the fact they were using an offshore approach and the price of oil discouraged them (from developing it]," he said.
"Another advantage of a land-based system is the overall impact on the environment is much lower. We don't impact the marine environment at all by developing the field in this way."
The start of drilling has been welcomed in Caithness – due to lose about 2,500 jobs from the decommissioning of the Dounreay nuclear plant.
David Bremner, a Caithness councillor, said: "We expect to lose up to 500 jobs from Dounreay over the next four to five years and eventually over 2,000 will go as the plant is decommissioned. If we can diversify into oil and gas, and the company uses local firms in its supply chain, then we are all for it.
"As long as it is handled in an environmentally friendly way, I don't anticipate anyone locally having a problem with it."
Caithness Petroleum is also pressing ahead with potentially bringing another discovery off Caithness into production. The Knockinnon Field could be even bigger than the Lybster find and production would happen at another spot along the coastline.
The full article contains 573 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
