Floating, subsea solutions increase as fixed platforms hold steady
David Paganie
ODS-Petrodata
The industry is increasingly employing floating and/or subsea production systems to develop deepwater fields, while the fields deemed commercially viable for development are trending deeper.
Subsea production is being used more often to exploit marginal fields in shallow waters, except in Southeast Asia, where fixed platform installations are a mainstay for field development. Meanwhile, fixed platform construction overall remains steady, while the number of gravity-based platform removals continues to be high in the Gulf of Mexico and is increasing in the North Sea.
The results of this year's global field development survey found 1,381 field development projects in the planning or construction phases, including 63 floating production/and or storage units, 258 fixed platforms (2-pile and greater), and 1,060 subsea trees.
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Floating and subsea production solutions are being included more often in operators' field development plans, while fixed platform utilization overall remains steady.
Floating appeal continues
This year's survey found 63 floating production and/or storage units in the planning or construction phases. West Africa leads the way with 20 units scheduled for installation, followed by Brazil with 15 units slated for installation in the region. Southeast Asian operators have designated 11 fields to employ FPSOs, while we anticipate the installation of an additional eight units in the US GoM.
ExxonMobil is working on firming up development plans for its Kizomba C field off Angola, which is likely to use a look-alike FPSO to Kizomba A and B. Planning for Kizomba D will follow shortly thereafter and is also projected to include a similar FPSO for development. Woodside Petroleum's Chinguetti field will be developed with an FPSO, and the company is likely to employ a second such unit on its Tiof field. Both projects are off Mauritania. Total is also firming up plans to deploy an FPSO on its Moho/Bilondo field off Congo.
Brazilians continue to use floating production units as a mainstay for field development. Petrobras has issued contracts for delivery of the P-52 semisubmersible production platform and the FPSO P-54 for development of the Roncador field, and supply of the P-51 semisubmersible for deployment on the Marlim Sul field. Other Brazilian fields expected to use floating production facilities include Petrobras' Golfinho and ChevronTexaco's Frade field.
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Murphy Oil subsidiary, Murphy Sabah Oil Co. Ltd., and partner Petronas Carigali have received sanctioning to develop the Kikeh field off Malaysia with an FPSO. Meanwhile, in the shallow waters off China, ConocoPhillips launched an engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning (EPIC) tender for a newbuild FPSO to develop its Penglai 19-3 phase II project.
Operators in the US GoM continue to incorporate floating production units within hub development schemes to exploit deepwater discoveries. The Atwater Valley Producers (AVP) group has selected a semisubmersible to serve as a receiving hub for several gas fields in the eastern Gulf, including Dominion's San Jacinto; Anadarko's Spiderman/Amazon, Jubilee, and Atlas/Atlas Northwest, BHP Billiton's Vortex, and Kerr-McGee's Merganser. BHP Billiton is looking to employ a semisubmersible unit as a production hub for its Neptune project in the Atwater Valley Foldbelt region of the central GoM.
Fixed platform construction steady
This year's field development survey found 258 fixed platforms (2-pile and greater) in the planning or construction phases. According to survey results, operators plan to install 71 fixed platforms in Southeast Asia and 47 platforms in the Middle East. Operators in the US GoM have designated 40 locations to receive installation of gravity-base facilities.
Operators in West Africa are using more gravity-base solutions as moderate water opportunities increase. ChevronTexaco is the first to use the compliant tower concept in West African waters. Construction is well underway on a ChevronTexaco 12-pile, 42-slot compliant tower, which the company has designed to handle production from the Benguela, Belize, and Tomboco fields in Angola's block 14.
Subsea production
Operators continue to find subsea prod-uction schemes attractive development solutions. Survey results indicate that operators plan to install 1,060 subsea trees worldwide. Operators will install a majority of the trees in West Africa, Brazil, the North Sea, and the US GoM. Survey results also indicate that 68% of the trees planned for installation will be set in water depths greater than or equal to 1,500 ft of water.
Earlier this year, Shell completed tieback of two gas wells from the Coulomb field in the GoM, which began flowing to the Na Kika semisubmersible production facility. The Coulomb field is in 7,600 ft of water.
The Atwater Valley Partners (AVP) group eastern Gulf development is expected to overtake Shell's water depth record for the deepest completed subsea wells. Anadarko is planning to tieback its Spiderman/Amazon field to the planned AVP hub semisubmersible floating production system. The field is in 8,100 ft of water.
