Offshore staff
EDINBURGH -- Melrose Resources says its Galata gas field in the Bulgarian sector of the Black Sea is ready to begin gas injection ahead of a new role as a storage facility.
The shut-in operation was completed on Jan. 31 to start the conversion process. Around 8.5 bcf of gas reserves remain in the field to provide cushion gas. Some minor modifications have been completed to the facilities ,including onshore and offshore pipe work bypasses and metering reconfiguration, in preparation for gas injection.
Melrose awaits the Bulgarian government’s final legal agreements and regulatory documentation. The approvals process has been delayed by the country’s general election in July, but Melrose is preparing to engage with the new administration to progress the project.
In parallel, the company is pursuing plans for its recent Kavarana and Kaliakra gas discoveries and various other exploration prospects on the Galata block on a geologic trend running east from the Galata field. The two discoveries will be developed via subsea wells tied-back to the Galata platform, with export via the existing offshore pipeline and onshore processing plant. Melrose also will facilitate tiebacks of any future discoveries.
Kavarna, around 7 km (4.3 mi) east of Galata, holds an estimated 24 bcf of reserves. These will be produced through the temporarily suspended Kavarna No.2 well. Kaliakra has probable reserves of 57 bcf. Melrose hopes to develop both in tandem in early 2010, thereby lowering the combined future development costs, and also reducing the project risks by avoiding pipelay operations in the severe winter weather.
First gas from Kavarna is planned next July and Kaliakra in October 2010, with an initial combined field flow rate estimated at 45 MMcf/d. Melrose adds that the Kaliakra well results significantly de-risked the undrilled Kavarna East structure between Kavarna and Kaliakra.
The company also has identified two undrilled exploration prospects, Kavarna North East and Kaliakra East, on the geologic trend containing unrisked reserves of 55 Bcf. Early in 2010 it plans to acquire a further 500 sq km (193 sq mi) of 3D seismic data to the north of the prospect trend in an area where an extension of the same exploration play may be present.
08/26/2009
