Though well North West Deep-2, drilled by Shell in 1974, blew out briefly from the Shaheen reservoir, the oil field was only formally discovered in 1992 by Maersk Oil. The drilling of appraisal wells was completed in 1994 using horizontal drilling techniques. Regular oil production started the same year. In 1995–1996, production facilities were extended with subsea export pipelines, an additional single point mooring loading buoy, new process facilities and a STAR type wellhead platform. In April 2004, the extension area north of block 5 was included to the production sharing agreement. Inauguration of new offshore facilities took place on 23 February 2005. In May 2008, Maersk Oil drilled the world record extended reach well BD-04A in the field with the GSF Rig 127 operated by Transocean. The well was drilled incident free to a record measured length of including a record horizontal reach of in 36 days. From 2004 until August 2009 the massive supertanker, Knock Nevis, the largest ship built to date, was moored there as a floating storage and offloading unit. In January 2010, she was replaced by both the FSO Asia, and in August 2010, the FSO Africa replaced the Astro Canopus. Both vessels are owned as a joint venture by Overseas Shipholding Group and Euronav. In June 2016 France's Total won a tender to replace Maersk Oil as operator of Al Shaheen Oil Field and commenced operating the field on 14 July 2017 under a joint venture agreement between Total and Qatar Petroleum through a new company named North Oil Company.
Geology
The oil and gas producing formation is the Kharaib, Shuaiba and Nahr Umr Formations. The field is characterized by low permeability, limited thickness, and geological complexity.
Production
The field consists of 131 operational production and water injection wells, 18 permanent platforms, and six production installations connected by 20 pipelines. In 2006, Al Shaheen's production of accounted for a significant portion of Qatar's total oil production of. Although the production capacity reaches, the current actual production is only due to OPEC quotas. A development plan between Maersk Oil and Qatar Petroleum calls for an increase in production to. This increase is expected to account for the majority of growth in Qatar's petroleum output over this time. Oil is currently stored in the floating storage and offloading vessels FSO Asia and FSO Africa. Produced oil is transported to the Mesaieed Industrial City for processing and export. There is a plan to build a new refinery in Mesaieed to process oil from Al Shaheen. This plan has been postponed. The Al-Shaheen field also produces associated gas. The gas production is estimated about of which is exported through the North Field Alpha facilities to Mesaieed, is consumed on-site for power and heat generation, and is flared.
Records
The Kola Superdeep Borehole was the longest and deepest borehole in the world for nearly 20 years. However, in May 2008, a new record for borehole length was established by the extended-reach drilling well BD-04A, which was drilled by Transocean for Maersk Oil in the Al Shaheen oil field in Qatar. It was drilled to, with a record horizontal reach of in only 36 days. On 28 January 2011, Exxon Neftegas Ltd., operator of the Sakhalin-I project, drilled the world's longest extended-reach well offshore on the Russian island of Sakhalin. It has surpassed the length of both the Al Shaheen well and the Kola borehole. The Odoptu OP-11 well reached a measured total length of and a horizontal displacement of. Exxon Neftegas completed the well in 60 days. On 27 August 2012, Exxon Neftegas Ltd beat its own record by completing the Z-44 Chayvo well. This ERD well reached a measured total length of.
