Extended Well Test News

Australian energy company Senex Energy has successfully tested a gas exploration well in the Cooper Basin in South Australia.According to the Brisbane-based company The Gemba-1 well flowed 227,000 cubic metres (8 mcf) of gas per day over a period of a week."Senex Energy has successfully completed the initial flow test of the Gemba-1 gas exploration well in the Cooper Basin, with stabilised flow rates of approximately eight million standard cubic feet per day, plus associated liquids," said a stock exchange annoucement.Senex Managing Director and CEO Ian Davies said: “Senex is delivering on its strategy to become a material supplier of gas to the east coast market, and this Cooper Basin gas discovery adds another potential supply source from our growing portfolio.

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, confirmed the commencement of an Extended Well Test at the Wressle-1 oil and gas well (‘Wressle’) in East Lincolnshire (‘PEDL 180’). This follows the successful testing earlier this year of four intervals at Wressle, which recovered a total of 710 barrels of oil equivalent per day from all four payzones. The start of testing operations marks a significant milestone for AIM firms Europa has a 33.3% working interest in PEDL180, alongside Egdon (operator, 25%), Celtique Energie Petroleum Ltd (33.3%), Union Jack Oil (8.3%). During initial testing, the Wressle-1 well produced oil and gas from three discrete reservoir intervals, the Ashover Grit, the Wingfield Flags, and two zones within the Penistone Flags.

Ezra Holdings Limited’s wholly owned subsidiary, London Marine Consultants (LMC), Ezra’s Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Turret Design outfit, has been awarded a contract by Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary Jurong Shipyard of Singapore, to supply an external turret mooring system for the Libra field’s Extended Well Test (EWT) FPSO vessel. The Libra oil field is a large, ultra-deepwater (up to 2,500 meters) oil prospect located in the Santos Basin, about 230 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, north of Tupi field. The oil field estimated to contain recoverable resources ranging between eight billion to 12 billion barrels of oil and is one of the largest deepwater oil accumulations globally.

Libra Consortium has signed a letter of intent with Odebrecht/Teekay (OOG-Teekay), winner of a tender process, for the charter of a FPSO-type platform (floating production, storage and offloading) designed for the extended well test campaign of Libra, in the Santos Basin pre-salt deposits. The delivery of the FPSO and the start-up of the first extended well test are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016. The plan is to conduct tests in several areas of the block, in order to evaluate the production performance and acquire information about the Libra area. Based on these data, future definitive production systems will be later designed. For each of these tests, two wells will be connected to the FPSO: one oil producer and one gas injector.

Today there are 324 oil/gas floating production units are now in service, on order or available for reuse on another field. FPSOs account for 64% of the existing systems, 79% of systems on order. Production semis, barges, spars and TLPs comprise the balance. The oil/gas production floater inventory has increased by four units since last month. Three FPSOs were ordered in August. We also reinstated a partially completed production semi,  Octobuoy, which we earlier deleted from the list of orders when the contract was terminated. This unit was being built for use by ATP in the North Sea.

Floating production has been one of the most significant developments in the oil and gas industry over the past four decades. Since the first floating production unit (Argyll) was installed in 1975, more than 350 offshore fields too deep, too remote or too small for fixed platforms have been developed using floating production facilities. Looking forward, the future of the sector continues to look very promising, but some barriers and threats to growth have appeared. Three hundred and twenty (320) oil/gas floating production units are now in service…

Brazil’s Libra pre-salt field, in Block SS-AUP1 in the Santos Basin, with estimated recoverable oil volumes of 8-12 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and in place volumes of between 25-40 billion BOE, was the country’s first pre-salt field to be auctioned. The rules governing this historical auction have been shunned by important super-majors such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP and also by major players such as the BG Group and Statoil. Many industry analysts were surprised that state-owned players from China, India and Malaysia dominated the list of companies that have agreed to the controversial terms imposed by the Brazilian government, through its National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

The Chinese firms, China National Offshore Oil Corporation ( CNOOC) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), have a 10 percent stake each, with Shell and Total taking 20 percent each, and Petrobras the remaining 40 percent share. The Libra block is located in Santos Basin ultra deep waters in the pre-salt polygon and is considered a prospect of high potential. The total extension of the area is 1,547.76 km2 and was discovered by well 2-ANP-0002ARJS, drilled in 2010. Under the rules of the auction, Petrobras had to participate in any consortium with at least a 30-percent stake, and to operate the field. The rules also called for the Brazilian government to receive a minimum 41.65 percent of the field's output…

There has been a significant increase in shipyard construction in Brazil in yards large and small alike. Maritime Reporter’s Contributing Editor in Brazil visited Brasa Shipyard in Rio de Janeiro and spoke to Philippe Levy, Country Manager for SBM Offshore, who is one of the yard directors. Brasa Shipyard is building FPSO deck modules for integration onto FPSO hulls. “Brasa shipyard was created by Synergy and SBM in order to simplify FPSO module integration for FPSOs leased to Petrobras for pre-salt oil production,” said Philippe Levy, Country Manager for SBM. Since Brasa shipyard is located in the city of Niterói, across Guanabara Bay from the city of Rio de Janeiro, SNV managed to resolve three major bottlenecks at the same location.

The August MTS Houston Section luncheon will be held on August 22 and will feature a presentation by Carlos Mastrangelo, SBM Offshore’s Senior Vice-President on Floating Production Units. Over the years, the worldwide offshore industry has seen numerous oil & gas developments with operators focusing on mitigating reservoir risks. To address these inherent risks, operators aim at minimizing pre-investment by including the flexibility to adjust the facilities as needed. For many years we have seen Floating Production Units (FPUs) deployed as extended well test units, early production systems, or even phasing the exploitation development. Often, the key reality is how to address the reservoir uncertainties.

Leading international oilfield services company Expro is celebrating a significant contract extension with Perenco in Cameroon. The award is an extension of services from a previous well campaign and will last for the duration of one year. Expro will provide an extended well test, data acquisition services and its drill stem testing (DST) package including Expro’s CaTS™ wireless telemetry technology which will be utilised as a surface read-out system. Work will take place across two exploration and appraisal (E&A) wells in the Lungahe and Elombo fields and two development wells in Dissoni. Expro’s Southern & West Africa region director, Riccardo Muttoni, said: “Perenco is pressing ahead with major development plans in Cameroon and the neighbouring areas.

On January 31th 2012, at 18h39m50s, the FPSO OSX-1 successfully initiated the production of first oil for its anchor client OGX, the Brazilian EBX Group oil and gas company responsible for the largest private-sector exploratory campaign in Brazil. The FPSO OSX-1 is in charge of carrying out the Extended Well Test on the Waimea accumulation, in the Campos Basin, through well OGX-26HP, located 80km off the coast, at a water depth of 130 meters. The FPSO OSX-1 is the first floating, production, storage and offloading unit to integrate the OSX fleet. OSX-1 was built in Korea and customized in Singapore, at Keppel’s shipyard. It is 271,75 meters long, and has the capacity to store up to 900 thousand barrels of oil.

Sigma Offshore, which has developed a pioneering mooring and fluid transfer system for oil and gas production vessels, has opened a new office in Singapore. Sigma’s Eirik Refstie moved from the company’s Oslo base to head up the new Singapore office ahead of the FPSO Asia Congress in Singapore on September 28-29. He will take on the role of Vice President Asia Pacific. Sigma Offshore developed its Smart Mooring System (SMS) as a cost-efficient and timesaving solution for FPSOs (Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels) and other vessels which require both mooring and fluid loading and unloading in medium to deepwater depths. Sigma Offshore now has offices Singapore, Houston, Oslo and its headquarters in Aberdeen.

The maritime industry has an image problem. Perceived to be an aging industry, many players in the maritime niche deal daily with the very real problem of replenishing its employment ranks, from desk jobs designing and operating vessels, to those at sea and in the construction yards. While the problem is multi-faceted and without a clear solution, this article is not about problems. It's about hope and the future. Traditional industries such as maritime are often lost to the youth, as higher-profile, more glamourous opportunities are found in computing and entertainment, for example. Simply put, many bright minds are lost before the battle has begun.

The last in a series of innovative, next-generation technology drillships left the building ways of Astilleros Españoles' Astano yard recently, heading for a neighboring shipyard for final fitting of its six massive Aquamaster thrusters. Discoverer Deep Seas, at the time of visit to tour the ship in Ferrol, Spain in early May, was dockside in nearby Bazan for the task of placing its six propulsion units, as task made easier by Bazan’ s deeper water facilities. Discoverer Deep Seas, along with its sister ships Discoverer Enterprise and Discoverer Spirit (the former named MR/EN’s Great Ship of 1999), embody not only the latest in drillship technology…