Unocal reviews concept for second phase of West Seno project
Sunday, October 31 2004 - 05:23 PM WIB
The firm said it would not build a tension leg platform (TLP) for the Phase Two of the project, as initially planned.
"I think we have abandoned the notion of an additional TLP out there," Joe Bryant, chief operation officer, told a conference call recently.
Unocal is originally developing the West Seno field in two phases with two TLP facilities and a floating production unit. Daily production is expected to peak at 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 150 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas by year-end 2005.
For Phase One, the company has drilled 26 of 28 wells in the northern section of the field and built one TLP. The field, which commenced production in August last year, now produces about 40,000 bpd of oil.
Phase Two, which is expected to come on stream about 2 years after Phase One production commenced, will include the drilling of up to 24 additional development wells on the field's southern section.
Unocal, however, has terminated a contract with Smedvig's West Alliance rig for this drilling campaign following postponement of the Phase Two.
During the conference call, chairman and CEO Chuck Williamson said the company was studying the size of reserves it could recover from the Phase Two, but he said "it won't be a huge number"
?However, we are pretty advanced in understanding how much of those Phase II reserves we could capture with extendedreach drilling from the existing TLP,? Bryant added.
West Seno, located in the Makassar Strait PSC area, is the first deepwater oil and gas project in Indonesia. Ultimate recovery from the field is expected to be 210 to 320 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The PSC is operated and 90 percent owned by Unocal. Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, holds the remaining interest. (robert)