oil to flow. Production was declared once the inspected product
was successfully routed to sales tanks, ConocoPhillips says.
Production will ramp-up through 2017, adding 118,000
bo/d. Total gross capacity for Surmont 1 and 2 is expected to
reach 150,000 bo/d. Surmont 1 started commercial production
in 2007 (OGJ Online, Dec. 11, 2007).
Malampaya compression platform installed
Installation of a depletion compression platform near deepwater
Malampaya gas and condensate field offshore the Philippines is
complete, reports Arup, which provided engineering support
services for the fabrication and installation of the self-installing
substructure (OGJ Online, Apr. 30, 2012).
The new, 13,000-ton platform is part of the third phase of
Malampaya development by Shell Philippines Exploration BV
and partners Chevron Corp. and state-owned PNOC Exploration Corp.
The platform was set in place in less than 24 hr during February with an in-built jacking system. Since then the facility
has been connected via a 43-m bridge link to the existing concrete gravity substructure processing platform.
The platforms and a catenary anchor-leg mooring buoy for
condensate are in shallow water about 30 km from the field,
where wells are completed subsea in 820 m of water in the West
Philippine Sea off Palawan.
The Malampaya and Camago reservoirs produce about 380
MMscfd of natural gas and 15,000 b/d of condensate. From the
platform, dry gas flows through a 504-km, 24-in. OD pipeline
to a plant on Luzon south of Manila for further processing and
ultimate delivery to electric power plants.
Shell Philippines completed the second phase of Malampaya
development in 2013 with the addition of two production wells.
UK approves $4.5-billion Culzean development
The UK Oil & Gas Authority has greenlighted development of
high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) Culzean field in the
central North Sea.
Operator Maersk Oil and coventurers JX Nippon and BP
PLC are investing $4.5 billion in the development, which
Maersk notes “has benefited from the HPHT Cluster Area Al-
lowance introduced by the UK government as part of the 2015
budget.”
The allowance supports the development of HPHT proj-
ects—which tend to have considerably higher capital costs—
and encourages exploration and appraisal activity in the sur-
rounding area, or “cluster,” Maersk says.
The gas-condensate field, discovered in 2008 (OGJ Online,
Jan. 30, 2009), has resources estimated at 250-300 million boe.
Production is expected to start in 2019 and continue for at least
13 years, plateauing at 60,000-90,000 boe/d.
The partners will develop Culzean with a standalone facility,
which will be a complex of bridge-linked platforms comprising
a 12-slot wellhead platform, a central processing facility, and
utilities-living quarters (OGJ Online, Nov. 20, 2014). Two front-
end engineering and design contracts were let in 2014.
Maersk recently let a contract to Tenaris for casing and
related services for the project (OGJ Online, Aug. 25, 2015).
Separately, Maersk Oil let a $1 billion engineering, procurement, and construction contract to Sembcorp Marine subsidiary SMOE Pte. Ltd., Singapore, for topsides for the project The
contract includes construction of the central processing facility
and two connecting bridges, wellhead platform, and utilities
and living quarters platform topsides.
PROCESSING QUICK TAKES
CHS takes full ownership of Kansas refinery
US farmer-owned cooperative CHS Inc., Inver Grove Heights,
Minn., has completed its purchase of National Cooperative Refinery Association’s refinery and related operations at McPherson, Kan., to take full ownership of the assets (OGJ Online,
Dec. 1, 2011).
Conclusion of the deal follows a 2011 agreement with
then-minority owners Growmark Inc., Bloomington, Ill., and
MFA Oil Co., Columbia, Mo., to buy additional interest in the
McPherson refinery in four annual increments starting on Sept.
1, 2012, and culminating on Sept. 1, 2015, CHS said.
CHS’s current investments in infrastructure and pipelines
at the 85,000-b/d refinery, now renamed the CHS Refinery at
The cooperative incurred $186.8 million in costs related to
the coker project during fiscal-year 2014 and $121.3 million
during the 9 months ended May 31, CHS said in its latest quarterly earnings report to investors.
Capital expenditures related to the refinery’s expansion
amounted to $128.3 million for fiscal year 2014 and $105.1 million for the 9 months ended May 31.
South Africa’s Engen wraps refinery turnaround
Engen Petroleum Ltd. has restarted its 125,000-b/d Enref refinery in Durban, South Africa, following a 4-week period of
planned maintenance activities (OGJ Online, July 6, 2015).
The 30-day scheduled turnaround, which comes as part of
the refinery’s ongoing maintenance program to ensure safe and
reliable operations, was completed at a cost of more than 150
million rand, the company said.
As a result of the maintenance work, the refinery currently
is operating at 99.8% of its full capacity, according to John Naidoo, Engen’s maintenance manager.
Turnaround activities included testing of all safety and protection equipment and systems, as well as routine maintenance
