In 2006, we completed construction of Buzzard and produced first oil in January 2007. Buzzard is the most significant project we've developed since bringing Masila on stream in Yemen over a decade ago. Completing the Buzzard development on budget and in just three years was a major accomplishment. It included safely managing more than 17 million staff hours, coordinating hundreds of suppliers and contractors, lifting over 25,000 tonnes of steel and battling harsh North Sea weather conditions. In its first year of operation, Buzzard achieved first quartile uptime performance for a new offshore facility in the UK North Sea.

We operate the Buzzard project through our subsidiary, Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited. Buzzard is a world-class asset with more than a billion barrels of oil in place. It is one of the largest North Sea discoveries in the last decade and is designed to produce approximately 200,000 boe/d (85,000 boe/d net to us) of high-margin production at its peak.

Buzzard was discovered in May 2001 and is located in the Outer Moray Firth, central North Sea, 100 kilometres northeast of Aberdeen and 55 kilometres from the nearest landfall at Peterhead. Buzzard straddles two licenses - P.986 (Blocks 19/10 and 20/6) and P.928(S) (Blocks 19/5a and 20/1S) and the water depth in the area is about 100 metres. See map ( 1.6 KB) of our UK North Sea assets.