Unocal's West Seno crude stream delayed to mid-July

First production of Unocal's new light, sweet West Seno crude from the deep waters offshore East Kalimantan is now projected for mid-July, delayed from the expected mid-June start-up, an equity source was quoted by Platts as saying Wednesday.

Platts said the schedule has been pushed back on account of delays in the arrival of a floating production unit (FPU) for the field from its construction yard in Ulsan, South Korea. The FPU, designed to process 60,000 barrels per day oil and 150 MMCFD of natural gas, was to be towed to the field site in Indonesia in late-April, Unocal earlier said. But it did not meet that schedule, the reason for which was not immediately clear.

"The unit is on its way to Indonesia now," the source added. Offshore installation of the FPU to its pre-laid deepwater moorings and hookup to a tension leg platform already in place and export pipelines is expected to take a fortnight. And offshore commissioning and startup activities will take another 30 days after that.

Meanwhile, the official Indonesian Crude Price formula of West Seno crude has been set at an introductory 75 cents per barrel discount to Attaka ICP, an equity source said.

The West Seno field in the Makassar Strait would come onstream at 5,000-10,000 BPD, ramping up to an average 20,000 BPD in the second month of production, sources earlier said. Unocal expects to reach 30,000 BPD output by year-end. Production volumes will continue rising gradually in 2004 as the remainder of the Phase One drilling program is executed, with 28 development wells drilled from one tension leg platform.

Phase Two of the project will see the addition of 24 wells on a second tension leg platform, targeted to boost the total output volume to 60,000 BPD of oil and 150 MMCFD of gas by 2005, Unocal said.

Ultimate recovery from the field is expected to be 210-320-million barrels of oil equivalent.

Unocal Makassar is operator of the Makassar Strait production sharing contract area. It holds a 90 percent working interest in the PSC, with Pertamina holding the remaining 10 percent.(*)