Heavy Oil Field News

Statoil (U.K.) Limited has awarded a contract to Sentinel Marine Limited to provide a new multi role Emergency Response & Rescue Vessel (ERRV) to support operations on the Mariner field on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). Sentinel Marine is an Aberdeen-based company, owning and operating offshore support vessels in the oil and gas marine industry. The new 65 metre ship, to be named “Mariner Sentinel”, will be custom built for Statoil and provide emergency cover, oil spill response preparedness and tanker assist capabilities for the Mariner field. The ERRV contract with Sentinel Marine has a fixed duration of five years, commencing in July 2016, and also includes five one-year extension options.

Statoil has awarded the contract for drilling services on the Mariner platform on the U.K. continental shelf to U.K.-based Odfjell Drilling. Odfjell Drilling will perform drilling services, maintenance of the drilling facility and drill pipe logistics for the Mariner field development, with options also on the Bressay field development. Casing, tubing running services and modifications to the drilling facility is also optional in the contract. The contract duration is four years from November 2016 plus 3x2 years options. The contract has an estimated value of GBP 160 million.

PetroJunín, joint venture formed by PDVSA (60%) and Eni (40%),  has started production from the Junín-5 giant heavy oil field, located in the Faja del Orinoco, the area with the largest untapped hydrocarbon reserves in the world. The block is located 550 kilometers southeast of Caracas and covers an area of approximately 425 square kilometers. The Junín-5 block, currently under development, holds 35 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of certified oil in place and is jointly…

US-based CB&I wins a project contract worth US$250-million from Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, Ltd. (DSME). CB&I's scope of work, which will commence in the first quarter, includes detailed engineering design services for the Mariner Topsides project that is part of the Mariner oil field development project being operated by Statoil in the UK North Sea. The Mariner heavy oil field is located on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea, approximately 150 kilometers east of the Shetland Isles. Pending final approval of the field development plan by the UK authorities, Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017. The field is estimated to produce for 30 years with an average production of around 55,000 barrels of oil per day.

Classification society ABS has been selected to class two of the major components in Petrobras’ Papa Terra offshore Brazil field development. The tension-leg wellhead platform (TLWP) known as P-61 and the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit known as P-63 will both be ABS classed. The P-61 is the first-of- its-kind TLP dry tree application to be installed in deepwater offshore Brazil. “ABS has a longstanding relationship with Petrobras and, since dry trees are being considered as one of the solutions for deepwater exploration in the region moving forward, we are excited to class this unit and look forward to assisting Petrobras in achieving another milestone in its exploration and production history,” said Kenneth Richardson, ABS Vice President, Energy Development.

AMEC announced that it has been selected by Brazilian company QUIP to perform basic engineering services for the topsides of the P-63 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, to be operated on behalf of Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company. The contract, the value of which has not been announced, begins immediately and will run until mid-2010. The P63 FPSO will develop the Papa Terra heavy oil field in the Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. The field is located about 68 miles (110 kilometers) off Rio de Janeiro in water depths of up to 3,940 feet (1,200 meters). “We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with QUIP and Petrobras,” said Terri Ivers, president of AMEC’s Houston-based oil and gas business.

StatoilHydro and Anadarko have signed an agreement whereby StatoilHydro will take over the remaining 50 percent in the Brazilian Peregrino project, which will give StatoilHydro a 100 percent working interest and operatorship of the development. The Peregrino field is located in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil; expected reserves in this heavy oil field are estimated at approximately 500 million barrels, excluding identified upsides. The field is expected to come on stream in 2010. In addition, StatoilHydro is acquiring Anadarko’s 25% interest in the Kaskida discovery in deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. For these assets StatoilHydro will pay Anadarko $1.8 billion…

Statoil Hydro on November 27 said it has won a bid to conduct offshore exploration off Brazil. The Norwegian group was awarded two blocks offshore. The blocks, numbered CM529 and CM530, are located in sea depths of around 100 m. The licenses for the two blocks were to be operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation that would have a 50 percent stake, the same as Statoil Hydro. Statoil Hydro did not state what the bid cost. The blocks were located next to the heavy oil field Peregrino that was slated to come on stream in 2010. Statoil Hydro has a 50-percent-stake in the Peregrino field in the Campos basin. The Norwegian group was created October 1 when Statoil and its rival Norsk Hydro merged their oil and gas activities.