sortium (DUC) partners to advance a full redevelopment plan
for the Tyra field facilities toward a FID by yearend.
Pending FID, production from Tyra is now expected to stop
in December 2019 instead of the previously planned permanent shuttering date of October 2018, and then restart in March
2022 on completion of redevelopment (OGJ Online, Jan. 3,
2017). The full redevelopment program requires a resequencing
of engineering activities from the decommissioning and partial
redevelopment scenario outlined in December 2016.
Tyra field has experienced subsidence of the chalk reservoir leading to the platforms sinking around 5 m in the last 30
years, reducing the gap between the sea and the platform decks.
A full redevelopment would restore current infrastructure, including the gas processing hub and five surrounding satellite
fields such as Harald and Valdemar.
Maersk adds that redevelopment also could enable future
production of oil and gas from the DUC license area as well as
third-party projects. Since 1984, Tyra has processed 90% of the
Denmark’s gas production.
Tyra field is operated by Maersk Oil on behalf of DUC, a
partnership of AP Moller–Maersk with 31.2% interest, Royal
Dutch Shell PLC 36.8%, Danish state-run Nordsofonden 20%,
and Chevron Corp. 12%.
Phased expansion planned Odoptu Stage 2 in Russia
India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd. said 32 wells are planned for a
phased expansion of the Sakhalin I Odoptu development in
Russia.
Extended-reach drilling from onshore to offshore in Odoptu
Stage 2 is planned for two sites 9 km apart: the North Wellsite
and the South Wellsite.
ONGC Videsh said the Krechet land rig, a new drilling rig,
spudded its first well Feb. 28 after completing conductor driving for the first four wells. The company expects to reach measured depths of 13,300 m, along with total vertical depths of
2,000 m. The rig was fabricated in the Keppel AmFELS yard
in Brownsville, Tex. Modules were shipped on five barges into
the Sea of Okhotsk and Piltun Bay in the northeastern part of
Sakhalin Island.
The fully enclosed drilling rig and pipe barn allow the crew
to perform drilling in temperatures of 21° C. yearround.
The Odoptu Stage 2 development is expected to start production in the third quarter. The field is expected to reach its
peak production of 65,000 b/d in 2018.
Odoptu Stage 1 oil and natural gas production began in
2010 (OGJ Online, Sept. 29, 2010).
Operator Exxon Neftegas Ltd. has 30% as does Sodeco.
ONGC Videsh and Rosneft each have 20%.
Wintershall basing 2017 plans on $55/bbl Brent
Germany’s Wintershall Holding GMBH increased oil and natural gas production 8% to 165 million boe in 2016, with higher
volumes coming primarily from Norway and Russia.
“Russia is our most important core region,” said CEO Mario
Mehren at the company’s annual press conference.
The company cited Russia and Argentina for low costs of
production and reserve replacement.
Wintershall’s proved reserves at yearend 2016 were 1. 62 billion boe, and its reserves-to-production ratio was 10 years.
Nine of 14 exploration and appraisal wells drilled in 2016
discovered oil or gas compared with 17 of 25 in 2015.
The company’s plans for 2017 are based on an average price
of $55/bbl for Brent crude. The average price was $44/bbl in
2016 and $52/bbl in 2015.
Its key projects in the coming years will be Maria and Aasta
Hansteen in Norway, the Achimov formation in Russia, and in
the Tierra del Fuego and Neuquen provinces in Argentina.
Wintershall has a 50% share in the development of Block 1A
of the Achimov formation in Urengoy field in western Siberia
and plans to develop Blocks 4A and 5A. Also in western Siberia,
the company said Yuzhno Russkoye gas field has been producing at plateau since 2009.
In Argentina, Wintershall has shares in 15 fields both onshore and offshore. It said offshore field Vega Pleyade “is a key
project for Wintershall in Argentina and will make a vital contribution to the natural gas supply on the Argentinean market.”
In Libya, with “difficult political conditions,” Wintershall
resumed production in September from onshore concession 96
“at a low level” of 35,000 boe/d.
PROCESSING QUICK TAKES
Total partners to expand USGC petchem production
Total SA has signed a preliminary agreement with Nova Chemi-
cals Corp., Calgary, and Borealis AG of Vienna to build a steam
cracker and polyethylene (PE) production plant at Houston-
based subsidiary Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc.’s
(TPRI) manufacturing sites along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Partners in the proposed joint venture would develop and
hold ownership interest in both a grassroots, 1 million-tonne/
year ethane steam cracker at Total’s 178,000-b/d integrated re-
finery in Port Arthur, Tex., and a 625,000-tpy PE plant based
on Borealis’ proprietary Borstar PE process at Total’s petro-
chemical production site in Bayport, Tex., the companies said.
Nova Chemicals and Borealis also would take ownership in-
terest in Total’s existing 400,000-tpy PE plant at Bayport.
Intended to help meet growing global demand for PE by
taking advantage of competitively priced ethane feedstock from
US shale production as well as easy export access to markets
abroad, the cost-effective brownfield investment project also
enables Total, Nova Chemicals, and Borealis to leverage existing synergies to help further integrate and expand their respective businesses in the Americas, the companies said.
Pending regulatory approvals, the JV is scheduled to form
and final investment decision taken on the project by yearend,
the companies said.
If approved, the $1.7-billion ethane cracker and Borstar PE
unit are planned for startup in late 2020.
