Page 16: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2007)

16 MTR January 2007

Offshore news to 193,000 barrels a day. Vietnam exports its oil production as it lacks a refinery to process the fuel into products such as gaso- line and diesel. PetroVietnam is building a facility at Dung Quat that will start opera- tions in 2009.

Premier Oil Plc reported that it finished drilling a well on the Blackbird field in block 12E offshore Vietnam's southern coast that found four oil bearing zones.

Premier last month announced a successful production test at the Dua field, also in

Block 12E. Soco International plc on

October 9 said it conducted a positive trial at the Ca Ngu Vang structure in Block 9- 2. Future oil production may result from exploration in the Phu Khanh basin off- shore the central coast. Vietnam has licensed blocks to California-based

Chevron Corp and Malaysia's Petroliam

Nasional Bhd; Texas-based Pogo

Producing Co; and India's ONGC Videsh

Ltd. (Source: Bloomberg)

ConocoPhillips Announces

Successful Exploratory Well

ConocoPhillips successfully tested the

Barossa-1 exploration well in the NT/P69 license located offshore Northern Territory,

Australia. Drilling of the Barossa-1 well commenced in July this year and was drilled to a total depth of 4,310 m.

Logging and two drill stem tests were com- pleted, confirming the presence of gas.

One test flowed gas at a rate of approxi- mately 30.1 million cubic feet per day through a 56/64 inch choke. This gas flow rate was constrained by limitations of the surface equipment. The other test, of a lower-quality reservoir interval, flowed gas at a rate of approximately 0.8 million cubic feet per day through a one inch choke.

Barossa-1 has been plugged and aban- doned as planned.

Drilling has now commenced on the

Caldita-2 well to appraise the Caldita accu- mulation. A 3D seismic survey over both

Technip to Provide Spar Hull and

Moorings to Shell

Technip won a contract from Shell Offshore Inc. to provide the engineering, pro- curement and construction (EPC) of a Spar(1) hull and mooring system for the Perdido

Regional Host Project. This project is located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 200 miles south of Freeport, Texas. Moored in about 8,000 ft. of water, the record breaking

Spar will be the deepest spar production facility in the world and the first with DVA (direct vertical access), which will reduce the drilling cost, simplify workovers and facil- itate access to subsea equipment. First production from Perdido is expected around the turn of the decade, with the facility capable of handling 130,000 boe/d.

The Perdido Regional Host will be the fourteenth Spar delivered by Technip, and is in a water depth that is nearly a half of a mile deeper than any other Spar. Shell's con- cept for regional development includes a common processing hub in Alaminos Canyon

Block 857 near the Great White discovery that incorporates drilling capability and functionality to gather, process and export production within a 30-mile radius of the facility. This concept will provide regional synergies, reduced cost and lower risk. This regional concept will also reduce the number and size of the facilities and operations in this challenging frontier area, resulting in a lower environmental impact. The Perdido

Regional Host will be jointly owned by Shell (35%), Chevron (37.5%) and BP (27.5%).

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