The Kimmeridge “nodding donkey”

The Kimmeridge nodding donkey

The search for oil in Dorset began in the 1930s but it was not until 1959 that the first well
producing oil and gas was discovered below Kimmeridge Bay. The well is extracted by a
single beam “nodding donkey” pump on the cliffs above the Bay that has worked
continuously for more than 50 years; it is the oldest working oil well in the UK and the
“nodding donkey” is now part of the local scenery. The Kimmeridge well produced 350
barrels of oil a day at its peak but this has now declined to a fifth of that level. Although the
Kimmeridge reservoir is not large, the discovery prompted the search for other oil deposits in
Dorset.

Oil has been extracted from the Isle of Purbeck since the early 17th century from Kimmeridge
in the form of oil-shale.

The oil extraction industry in the area stated in 1936 with experimental oil wells being bored
near Kimmeridge and in 1960 BP’s Kimmeridge Oil Field was discovered. The Kimmeridge
site has a single beam pump or nodding donkey which has been extracting oil continually
since 1961 making it the oldest working pump in the United Kingdom extracting around 65
barrels per day from a depth of 350 meters below the cliff.

The oil is transported by tanker to Wytch Farm where it is piped to storage tanks near
Southampton.

Nodding Donkey photo by Huligan0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Huligan0)

Creative Comons.

The Kimmeridge Oil Field is to the northwest of Kimmeridge Bay, on the south coast of the
Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, England.
Contents
 1 Location
 2 History
 3 See also
 4 References

Location
The small village Kimmeridge is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south of Wareham and about 8
kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Swanage. The Kimmeridge oil field is part of the Wytch Farm oil
field and processing facility operated by Perenco. Wytch Farm is on the southern shore of
Poole Harbour and about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) northeast of the oil well. Kimmeridge Bay
and its cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site, because of the quality and
variety of geological landforms along the coast.[1]

History
In Dorset the search for oil started back in 1935. Between 1958 and 1980 six wells were
drilled in Kimmeridge Bay. The first drilling of the Kimmeridge oil field was the Broadbench
1 well to the north of Broadbench, which revealed neither oil nor gas. The second well
Broadbench 2, later renamed Kimmeridge 1, was drilled in 1959 and both oil and gas were
discovered. The Kimmeridge 2 well (drilled 1960) to the east of the car park showed only
small amounts of oil, but it was retained as an observation well. The drillings Kimmeridge 3
(drilled 1959 to 1960) at Broad Bench and Kimmeridge 5 (drilled in 1980 near the
Kimmeridge 1 well) exposed only weak oil contents, while the drilling Kimmeridge 4 in
1960, east of Brandy Bay by Long Ebb, revealed no exposures due to a mechanical
breakdown.

The Kimmeridge 1 well site, is a small site, with a single beam pump or "nodding donkey"
which has been pumping continually since 1961, making it the oldest working oil pump in the
UK.[2] The well once produced 350 barrels per day, but currently yields around 65 barrels per
day (10.3 m3/d) from the Jurassic strata that lie around 350 metres (1,150 ft) below the cliff.[3]
The well has been operating this long because it is tapped into a network of connected
reserves, however the yield is decreasing. The oil is transported by tanker to Wytch Farm,
from where it is piped to the storage tanks at Hamble-le-Rice on Southampton Water before
being shipped to the main refinery.[4] The nodding donkey has a high wire-mesh fence around
it but it can be viewed clearly from all sides. The well provides views over the Kimmeridge
Ledges and 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of coast where bedrock extends at least half a kilometre out
to sea under the waves.

immeridge Oil Well

Kimmeridge K1 well
© Copyright Philip Halling and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

The search for oil in Dorset started in 1935. Between 1958 and 1980 six wells were drilled in
Kimmeridge Bay area. The second drilling B2, later renamed K1, was made in 1959 and both
oil and gas were discovered.

The Kimmeridge K1 well site, is a small site, with a single beam pump or “nodding donkey”
which has been pumping continually since 1961. The well once produced 350 barrels per day,
but currently yields around 65 barrels per day the Jurassic strata that lies around 350 metres
(1,150 ft) below the cliff.

The oil is transported by tanker to Wytch Farm, from where it is piped to the storage tanks at
Hamble-le-Rice on Southampton Water before being shipped to the main refinery.

Kimmeridge Bay Oil Field and Wytch Farm

by Morgan Windram

Due to the geographic location and difficulty reaching each of these sites, we did not visit the
Kimmeridge Bay Oil Field or the Wytch Farm (British Petroleum) however; I briefed the
group on my findings of the two locations.

Below you will see a Map of the Kimmeridge Bay complete with Geological labeling and a
legend for identification.

The Kimmerdige Bay is composed of Blackstone which is Kimmerdige oil shale. You can
see it if you go east of Kimmeridge at Clavell’s Hard. Now it is an inaccessible quarry
situated on a cliff, but was once a productive mining area. They used underground mines here
and also a bit inland. The composition of the sediments is Kimmeridge Clay, dolomite
bedding, crushed ammonites which have formed layers of these rocks.
The Wytch Farm oil field can be found in the South-east of Dorset in Southern England; it
extends to Poole Bay and is the largest onshore oil field in Europe. Up to 300 million barrels
of recoverable reserves are available. Operated by British Petroleum Amoco Exploration (on
behalf of its partners Premier Oil Exploration Ltd, ARCO British Ltd, ONEPM Petroleum,
Clyde Petroleum Ltd and Talisman North Sea Ltd). Originally the plans were to build the
field on an artificial island offshore, but the high capital cost and lack of oil production during
platform construction forced British Petroleum to search for a more economic alternative. It
was necessary to focus on preserving the landscape and stressing archaeological and
conservational importance of the area beneath Poole Harbour (where the oil would be
extracted). Sensitive planning was needed to assure that proper care to protect the
environment was taken. They recruited employees from CEH to obtain the range of
specialists needed to assess the ecological implications of any proposals made and to advise
on the restoration of areas with semi-natural communities that had been destroyed by any
construction activity already. The assessment involved many stages from a large scale to a
small detailed scale. Areas susceptible to damage from construction activity were identified
within the Wytch Farm development and along the oil export pipeline to Hamble oil terminal.
They determined possible alternatives. Restoration was required in many areas techniques
such as seeding, turfing, and clodding, were used to restore saltmarsh vegetation. Erosion
control was key. Monitoring the project was also important because they needed to assure
that the biological communities were not harmed in any way. Constant updates and
refinements to the process were needed and done according to patterns of change within the
ecological system.

Kimmeridge Oilfield - Introduction

Northwest of Kimmeridge Bay is the oil well of British Petroleum Co. Ltd. This well site is small with a
single beam pump or "nodding donkey". It has a high wire-mesh fence around it but it can be clearly
viewed and there is an explanatory notice provided by BP on the front. This is probably the oldest
continuously producing well site in the UK and was drilled in 1959. This was the original successful
Dorset oil well before the much large Wytch Farm oil discovery was made. It has produced 350 barrels
per day from fissured shelly limestone of the Middle Jurassic Cornbrash at about 320m depth.
Production now is only 80 barrels per day (12,720 litres), according to the BP information notice. The
oil is collected twice a week by tanker and transported to the main BP Gathering Station at Wytch
Farm near Corfe Castle. It is then stabilized and exported by pipeline to a terminal at Hamble on
Southampton Water. From there it travels by tanker to oil refineries for production of high quality fuels.

The pump is a conventional beam pump or sucker-rod pump, although this one is very quiet because it
is electrically driven rather than having the more common diesel engine for power. At depth in the
anticline, at about the level of the Cornbrash, both oil and gas enter the casing which is perforated
(this is usually done by firing shots out of the well).The oil is pumped up by a long string of narrow rods
within the tubing (the inner piping) of the well on a system operated by valves. There is a significant
weight of rods and oil to be lifted at each movement of the beam so there are two heavy, half-moon-
shaped, counter-weights which rotate. You can see these in the photograph. The gas rises to the
surface between the tubing and casing and is piped away separately at the surface. There is,
according to the notice, intention to use the gas for fuel in the future to provide energy to drive the
pump mechanism. Some bushes or small trees are being grown in front of the oil well and this single
pump causes very little disturbance to the environment and, indeed, is something of a tourist
attraction. Had a large quantity of oil been found here then more screening of the pumps by trees, as
at Wytch Farm, might have been necessary.

Of course it is obvious that the oil is not coming from the Kimmeridge Clay which is at surface in the
cliffs at Kimmeridge. However, such an origin is sometimes a misconception amongst the non-
geological public, probably because the Kimmeridge Clay is the major source rock for the oil in the
North Sea. There is no liquid oil in the exposed Kimmeridge cliffs, only oil-shale and bituminous shale
containing kerogen, a brown waxy substance. The Kimmeridge Clay at Kimmeridge is not thermally
mature (it has not been suffficiently heated by sufficiently deep burial at this particular locality). The
real source of this oil is probably the deeper-buried, Lower Jurassic (Lias) bituminous shales in the
offshore English Channel Basin.

The Oil Field - General

The search for oil in Dorset started in 1935. The first prospecting licences under the 1934 Petroleum
Production Act were granted to the D'Arcy Exploration Company, who worked with BP. Exploration
wells on whaleback anticlines at Poxwell and Portsdown in 1936 were unsucessful. Generally oil was
not discovered in quantity in the Tertiary anticlines, which were compared to those in Iran, from
whence Britain obtained its oil. It is now known that the oil of the large oilfields like Wytch Farm are in
concealed fault traps of Cretaceous age (Late Kimmerian), not generally in the Tertiary anticlines.
These can only be detected by seismic methods.

The Kimmeridge field was discovered in 1959, long after the initial search for oil in Dorset. It began
producing in 1961 ( (Gluyas et al. 2003). For a short time the production was up to 350 barrels a day,
but later declined to about 100 BOPD and is now about 60 BOPD. The Kimmeridge Field was
developed under a Mining Licence (ML5) granted in 1964. The field still produces under that licence
and it is due to expire in 2014 (Gluyas et al.). Between 1959 and 2000 six wells were drilled in
Kimmeridge Bay (these are shown on a map above and listed below).

The reservoir is a fissure system in the Middle Jurassic Cornbrash Limestone. This belongs to the top
Bathonian to basal Callovian, and includes the zones of Cydoniceras discus and Macrocephalites
macrocephalus. It is about 27 metres thick here. The nearest surface exposures are at the shores of
the Fleet Lagoon (Shipmoor Point near Abbotsbury, access difficult; Butterstreet Cove, near East
Fleet, access easy).

History of the Oil Well

The search for oil in Dorset started in 1935. The first prospecting licences under the 1934 Petroleum
Production Act were granted to the D'Arcy Exploration Company, who worked with BP. Exploration
wells on whaleback anticlines at Poxwell and Portsdown in 1936 were unsucessful. Generally oil was
not discovered in quantity in the Tertiary anticlines, which were compared to those in Iran, from
whence Britain obtained its oil. It is now known that the oil of the large oilfields like Wytch Farm are in
concealed fault traps of Cretaceous age (Late Kimmerian), not generally in the Tertiary anticlines.
These can only be detected by seismic methods.

Volume of the Oil Reservoir

It is interesting to note that by 1986 the well had produced 2.7 x 10 6 bbl House (1993) . This was
thought to be greater than the original volumetric capacity of the reservoir according to ( Stoneley and
Selley (1986). They considered that the reservoir was being replenished by migration of oil from lower
horizons. However, Evans, Jenkins and Gluyas (1998) in a paper entitled - The Kimmeridge Bay
oilfield: an Enigma Demystified - have provided new information. New calculations have made on the
reservoir. Further details are given below, in the Structural Closure section. The oil column was known
to be 14.3 metres (47 feet) to 17.4 metres (57 feet) thick in about 20 metres of Cornbrash under a seal
of Oxford Clay.

Porosity

The porosity of the Cornbrash limestone here is very low (around 1 percent) and permeability is
negligible. However fracture porosity is present, and this not well understood. Different estimates were
made for the average porosity including that provided by the fractures. It is very difficult to average out
the variable volumes of fracture porosity in relation to the volume of almost non-porous limestone. The
details of the fractures are not known, and the extent of fracture porosity is one of the uncertain
variables.

Structural Closure
The main structure is a tight, structurally complex, monoclinal faulted fold, known as the Purbeck
Disturbance Gluyas et al. (1998). The Kimmeridge trap is south of this. The northern limit of the trap,
as shown above, is an east-west fault. The other limits are dips, east, west and south off the dome-like
structure. A problem lies with the closure, in effect, the size of the trap or structure from which oil
cannot escape.

This has been difficult to calculate because of uncertainties regarding fracture porosity. Different
closures have been calculated, usually larger, and sometimes much larger, than the originally mapped
closure of 120 to 160 acres. Problems of estimating closure is why the hypothesis of resupply or of
much extended fractures systems originated.

Evans, Jenkins and Gluyas (1998) having studied the decline behaviour believe that the reservoir
contains a finite ultimate recoverable reserve of 3.5 million barrels. They have stated that: "Despite
being the most popular myth surrounding the field, the reservoir is neither fed from a deeper
accumulation nor is migration into the field still occurring. Neither is oil being produced from a single
isolated fractured zone which was only penetrated by the first well."

They point out that if migration was continuing then the production history would not show the
conventional decline which it does. The well results are consistent with a fractured reservoir contained
within an anticlinal trap. Nevertheless the extent of the reservoir system and effective porosity are still
not fully understood. All other similar traps in the Wessex Basin seem to have either been breached or
never been charged. Their final remarks are: "Perhaps, like the Wytch Farm field to the north, it is the
sole survivor of a much more significant play which was wiped out during inversion" [inversion was the
uplift of the basin to the south].

The Low Pressure Problem

A special aspect of the well, and one which has generated some discussion, are the abnormally low
reservoir pressures, actually below hydrostatic. The initial pressure in Kimmeridge - 1 well was 400
PSI at 520m SS. This pressure would be expected in a reservoir several hundred metres shallower.
Brunstrom (1963) suggested that oil may have been sealed in the fracture prior to Miocene folding and
that the fissures were physically enlarged during folding leading to reduced pressures. Evans, Jenkins
and Gluyas (1998) comment that some such explanation is necessary because there is no history of
recent burial which might otherwise explain the pressures.

The Succession in the Boreholes

Other boreholes have been drilled in the Kimmeridge Bay area and although not useful in terms of
production have provided more information. See Evans, Jenkins and Gluyas (1998) for details. The
succession in the original borehole was given by Brunstom, 1963 as follows:

Lower Kimmeridge Clay 0-243m

Corallian 243-340
Oxford Clay 340-519
Kellaways Beds 519-537
Cornbrash 537-564
Forest Marble and Fuller's Earth 564-889
Inferior Oolite 889-909
Bridport Sands 909-1042

KIMMERIDGE OIL FIELD:

Oil Wells
(summarised from Evans et al. and Gluyas et al. See these papers for details.)

-----
Broadbench 1.

1936-1937. Intended to reach Bencliff Grit, Corallian, because of the oil in that at Osmington Mills.
Found a joint in Sandsfoot Grit wet with light oil, but did not get to the Bencliff.

-----
Broadbench 2. (later renamed Kimmeridge No.1)

Oil oozed from partially-leached calcite veins in the Cornbrash at 512m. subsea. (Why were the calcite
veins partially leached?). Production tests yielded 30bbl/day. Two acid treatments caused the well to
flow briefly at the very high rate of 4300 barrels a day. Completed as a producing well. This is now the
producing Kimmeridge No.1, with the nodding donkey and shown in photographs above.

-----
Kimmeridge No.2.

Drilled 1960, east of Kimmeridge No.1. Top Cornbrash at 583m. Some oil in sands within the Oxford
Clay. Very small quantity of oil from Cornbrash. Pressures showed Oxford Clay and Cornbrash in
communication.

-----
Kimmeridge No.3.

Drilled 1959-60, prior to Kim 2. Location 762m. to SW of Kim 1. Small test production from Cornbrash.

-----
Kimmeridge No.4.

1960. Mechanical breakdown.

-----
Kimmeridge No.5.

In 1980, post Wytch Farm Sherwood discovery. Weak gas shows throughout Jurassic. Important for
going into the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone at 2272. Sherwood has only weak oil shows and reservoir
quality was poorer than at Wytch Farm. (Useful information on Sherwood).

-----
The RGGE (Rapid Global Geological Events) Boreholes.

Three continuously cored boreholes for research were drilled through the Kimmeridge Clay by 2000.
Two boreholes were in Swanworth Quarry, near Worth Matravers, and the third, Metherhills No.1 was
at Metherhills, adjacent to the road down to Kimmeridge Bay. Metherhills No.1 went into the Sandsfoot
Clay of the Corallian. These boreholes were not intended for petroleum exploration. See Gallois
(2000) for details.