The Cormorant oilfield is located 161 Km north east of Lerwick, Shetland in block number 211/26a. It is operated by Shell and licensed to Shell/Esso. It was discovered in September 1972 at a depth of 150 metres. Estimated recovery is 90 million barrels of oil. Location within the British Isles The Market Cross,Central Lerwick Lerwick is the only town and main port of the Shetland Islands, found more than 160km (100 miles) off the north coast of Scotland. ... The Shetland Islands, also called Shetland (archaically spelled Zetland) formerly called Hjaltland, comprise one of 32 council areas of Scotland. ... Royal Dutch Shell plc / Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell NV is an Anglo-Dutch major energy company, one of the top four vertically-integrated private sector oil, natural gas, and petrol companies in the world (along with BP, ExxonMobil, and Total). ... An Esso Station in Toronto Esso in Higashi-Osaka Esso is an international trade name used by ExxonMobil and its related companies. ...

The oil reservoir is located at a depth of 2,895 metres.

Production started in December 1979 from the Cormorant Alpha platform. This platform is a concrete gravity platform of the Condeep type. It has three legs and storage capacity for 1 million barrels of oil. The total sub-structure weight is 294,655 tonnes and it is designed to carry a topsides weight of 32,350 tonnes.

The topsides facilities included capability to drill, produce, meter and pump oil. It also has capability to re-inject water to maintain reservoir pressure. Peak production was 24,000 barrels per day in 1979. The platform is also the starting point for the Brent System pipeline, a major communications centre and the location of Brent Log - air traffic control for Northern North Sea helicopter traffic.

In addition an Underwater Manifold Centre (controlled from the Cormorant platform also produces oil. This started up in mid 1983. It has a design capacity for 50,000 barrels per day. Also a single satellite well (P1) is linked to the platform with a design capacity of 10,000 barrels per day.

Gas is exported from Cormorant Alpha via the Western Leg gas pipeline which connect into the FLAGS pipeline at Brent Alpha. French Tricolore flag A flag is a piece of cloth flown from a pole or mast, usually intended for signaling or identification. ...