Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Mar. 11 -- PTTEP Australasia has engaged AGR Field Operations’ subsea division to aid in the abandonment of the Challis and Jabiru oil field production wells in the Timor Sea.
AGR will provide engineering, project management, and support services in the abandonment process, which is expected to take 10 months.
Production ceased at Challis on Sept. 19, 2010, and at Jabiru on Sept. 30.
Combined production from the two fields just prior to abandonment was down to a little more than 2,000 b/d—a steady decline from 8,000 b/d in 2003.
Jabiru was originally discovered by BHP Petroleum in May 1983, sparking extravagant predictions that the Timor Sea would be a new Bass Strait. The field began production via the Jabiru Venture floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in 1986 and produced a total of about 115 million bbl in its lifespan.
Jabiru Venture, a converted tanker, was the first FPSO in Australia, while the specially designed swivel turret mooring was a pioneer worldwide in offshore production technology. The vessel, with a production capability of 60,000 b/d and a storage capacity of 1 million bbl, is now for sale through shipbrokers Kennedy Marr Offshore.
Challis field, discovered by BHP Petroleum in 1984, came on stream in 1989 and has produced a total of 62 million bbl during its life via the Challis Venture FPSO.
This vessel, purpose-built by IHI in Japan, can process 55,000 bo/d and has a storage capacity of 880,000 bbl. It too is for sale via Kennedy Marr.
159458497 Aleksei Zakirov | Dreamstime.
Photo from Esso SAF.
