Offshore staff
ADELAIDE, Australia -- Beach Petroleum expects first oil from the BP-operated North Shadwan project offshore Egypt by next June. This follows a successful test on the first development well, on the NS377-3 field.
The well, which flowed at rates up to 1,400 b/d, is the first of up to four planned on North Shadwan blocks 377 and 385. The oilfields were discovered by Amoco in the 1980s in water depths of 20-40 m (65.6-131 ft), 2-4 km (1.2-2.5 mi) from the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez.
According to Beach, next in the sequence will be the Teen-1 exploratory well, probably followed by another well in the NS377 field (NS377-5). A different rig would then be deployed to drill the NS385-2 development well on the NS385 field: full development of NS385 could require a further three wells.
The combined oil recovery from these fields is expected to be in the range 10-15 MMbbl, possibly more, depending on the outcome of Teen-1.
BP is developing the fields via deviated drilling from an onshore location housing all production facilities, with production routed through an 11-km (6.8-mi) overland pipeline to an established processing plant. The development will likely cost close to $60 million.
Other partners in the program are Tri-Ocean Energy and Egyptian General Petroleum Co.
11/30/2009
