Offshore staff

SYDNEY, Australia – Preparations are continuing for the WZ 6-12 and WZ 12-8 West oil development in the Beibu Gulf, offshore China.

CNOOC has assumed operatorship of the project and has established an operating subsidiary company, Weizhou Operating Co., into which five employees from partner ROC Oil have been seconded.

ROC says engineering design for platform and pipeline facilities was roughly 80% complete by mid-year, and procurement and contracting for fabrication of the platforms are both well advanced. The operator expects to achieve first production before end-2012.

In China’s Bohai Bay, ROC is operator of the Zhao Dong C & D oil fields; unitized operator of the C4 oil field; and operator of the Zhanghai and Chenghai blocks.

Early in April, a 20-well development drilling program got under way, comprising 15 producers and five injectors. By mid-year, five producers and one injector had been drilled from the C & D field platform, of which three were pending completion.

Technical work continues on the additional Zhanghai and Chenghai blocks. On July 15, ROC began drilling its first exploration well in the Zhanghai block as part of normal batch drilling operations from the C4 platform. If successful, the well should be completed this summer.

On May 16, agreement was reached for the sale of the contractors’ share of Zhao Dong crude oil to PetroChina Dagang Oilfield Co. at international benchmarked pricing.

The crude oil will be delivered via a subsea pipeline to the Dagang Refinery. Use of the pipeline should eliminate the need for transporting crude cargoes by barge – this has led to temporary production and delivery interruptions due to adverse weather conditions and capacity issues at Tangu port.

ROC adds that the pipeline should also significantly improve the environmental risk profile of Zhao Dong. It should be fully commissioned this summer.

07/27/2011