Jeremy Beckman, London
Venture strengthens Sevan alliance
Venture Production has contracted Sevan Marine for a second FPSO for its UK North Sea operations. It will be similar to theSevan Hummingbird, currently under construction in China, which is due to sail out later this year to Venture’s Chestnut oilfield. In both cases, the cylindrical hull and marine systems are based on the patented Sevan 300 technology (formerly known as the SSP 300).
TheSevan Hummingbird for the Chestnut field, one of two Sevan 300 FPSOs currently under construction at the Yantai Raffles yard in China.
The new platform is destined for Pilot, a heavy oilfield discovered in 1989 in central North Sea block 21/27a, with estimated reserves of 90 MMbbl. Venture is lining up an appraisal well on the field this spring, using a vessel modified for shallow water drilling. It also aims to appraise a nearby heavy oil discovery in block 28/2a. Depending on the outcome and UK government approval, Sevan’s current year-long agreement, covering detailed engineering for the production facilities, could be extended to a 5- to 10-year life-of-field contract.
Venture plans to export Pilot’s oil via the BP-operated Forties Pipeline System. Production should start in 2009, but the platform could be re-deployed later on to work other stranded fields in the company’s portfolio - as is the plan with Chestnut.
In the southern UK block 47/9c, Venture is farming into Barbarossa, a gas structure discovered by the British Gas Council in 1982. The field also adjoins Venture’s Channon exploration prospect in blocks 47/3h and 47/8c. Under an agreement with the current license holders, Corsair Petroleum and Nido Petroleum, Venture will pay the entire cost of a single development well targeting 30-35 bcf of reserves, probably tiedback a short distance to BG’s Mercury platform, using the jackupNoble Julie Robertson.
In the same region, Tullow Oil has government sanction for another single-well gas development, called Thurne. According to field analysts BritBoss, Tullow plans to drill a horizontal well as a sidetrack from the Deben subsea producer (a tieback to the Thames AR platform). Deben’s subsea tree will be removed and replaced by a new one from Vetco Gray. The existing gas export flowline and umbilical will be retained.
Talisman lines up jackup for Yme revival
Talisman Energy has submitted its plan for re-developing the Yme oilfield in the Norwegian North Sea. Assuming government approval, this will be the first reactivation of an abandoned field on the Norwegian shelf.
Former operator Statoil developed Yme with a leased drilling and production jackup, extracting 51 MMbbl between 1996 and 2001. But plummeting oil prices rendered further production economic, causing Statoil to shut down and remove the field facilities, eventually relinquishing the surrounding production license. This was reissued to Talisman in partnership with Revus Energy and Pertra in 2004 under Norway’s 18th licensing round.
Talisman has budgeted $656 million for the new scheme, again based around a leased production jackup, with 12 producer and injector wells, five of them to be completed subsea. TheMaersk Giant will handle first-phase development drilling.
According to field analysts ScanBoss, the company screened five production concepts before settling on Gusto MSC’s MOPU/storage jackup platform, devised originally for marginal oilfields remote from pipeline infrastructure. This concept was first applied in the Danish sector Siri field in the late 1990s. In Yme’s case, the platform will rest on a steel storage tank fixed to the seabed, offloading oil directly to a shuttle tanker.
Gusto MSC’s parent company SBM has contracted yards in the UAE and Malaysia to build the platform and storage facility, with first oil scheduled for early 2009. Talisman expects to produce around 70 MMbbl over the field’s life (associated gas is likely to be reinjected), and the facilities also may be used to tie in discoveries on the company’s other blocks in the Egersund basin.
Talisman’s Gyda platform in the North Sea also may host Dong’s first operated development in the Norwegian sector. ScanBoss says the Danish company plans this summer to appraise Oselvar, a 40 MMboe field in block 1/3 discovered by Elf in 1991, using the jackupMaersk Guardian.
Assuming that the well meets expectations, Dong may look to steer two horizontal subsea producers through the oil rim beneath the gas cap. The wells would then tie back either to Gyda or BP’s Ula platforms, both 23 km (14 mi) east.
In the Barents Sea, Statoil and its partners have abandoned efforts to develop the Snøhvit gas field’s oil zone. Gas production is due to start late this year, and ideally the oil zone should have been worked on soon afterwards to maximize recovery before reservoir pressure dropped too far. However, recent technological and reservoir studies suggest development would not be economic.
The company is pushing ahead, however, with its latest scheme to maximize the Norne infrastructure in the Norwegian Sea. It recently issued a NOK2.4 billion ($371 million) development plan for Alve, a 1990 gas-condensate discovery, which it proposes to tie back to theNorne FPSO via a four well-slot subsea template. At peak, Alve should produce 4 MMcm/d (141 MMcf/d).
Goliat heads Norwegian exploration roll call
Norwegian sector operators spudded 26 exploration wells across the shelf last year, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). This was nearly double the 2005 total, although fewer wells were drilled than planned, mainly due to rig shortages.
The combined efforts led to four new discoveries. By far the largest was Eni’s 7122/7-3 in the Barents Sea beneath the Goliat oil field, which found new oil in the Kobbe formation in Mid-Triassic rocks. The discovery was further delimited by well 7133/7-4, which proved gas as well as oil in the Kobbe horizon, leading in turn to another minor oil find deeper in the Triassic Klappmys formation. Eni plans further drilling on the production license this fall.
Statoil saw two small Jurassic discoveries near its production centers at Norne and Gullfaks and also had good results appraising Torenerose, east of Snøhvit; Morvin, 8 km (5 mi) west of Aasgard; and Gudrun, north of Sleipner. Other appraisal successes include Talisman’s work on the 1983 Krabbe find, west of Ula, which the company may develop in tandem with the closed-in Mime field.
Attention has shifted to the Norwegian Sea, where Shell, Total, and Hydro are drilling potentially high-yield wells on the Onyx, Hans, and Zita prospects. Despite continuing rig constraints, NPD anticipates 30 new exploration wells offshore Norway this year.
NPD foresees a total exploration spend of NOK 23 billion ($3.6 billion) in 2007, and development spending of NOK 82 billion ($12.7 billion). It expects eight new field development plans to come forward, including BP’s Skarv, and revised plans to lift recovery from major production centers such as Ekofisk, Eldfisk, Snorre, Troll Oil, and Valhall. Over the next five years, these and other projects should lift total investments across the shelf to NOK 478 billion ($71 billion).
