By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 15 -- Exxon Mobil Corp. and partners launched natural gas production from Alma field on the Scotian shelf off eastern Canada.
The flow of 120 MMcfd and 3,000 b/d of condensate and natural gas liquids from Alma, 125 miles southeast of Halifax, NS, brought the Sable Project's average output to 500 MMcfd and 20,000 b/d.
A 32-mile subsea pipeline connects Alma, in 220 ft of water, to the Sable Project's Thebaud central processing platform.
Tier 1 production from the Sable Project began in late 1999 from North Triumph, Venture, and Thebaud fields. The hydrocarbons are processed at two onshore facilities in Nova Scotia. The Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline ships Sable gas to the Canadian Maritime Provinces and Northeast US.
South Venture, the second Tier 2 field, is under development in Halifax and slated to go on production in late 2004.
Sable Project working interests are ExxonMobil Canada 50.8%, Shell Canada Ltd. 31.3%, Imperial Oil Resources Ltd. 9%, Pengrowth Corp. and Emera Offshore Inc. (pending sale to Pengrowth Corp., closing mid-December) 8.5%, and Mosbacher Operating Ltd. 0.5%.
Meanwhile, ExxonMobil Canada awarded a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the Sable compression platform and its facilities to a partnership of Saipem SpA of Italy (leader) and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea.
Topsides weight is 7,000 tonnes. The compression platform will be bridge-linked to the existing Thebaud platform, on which additional work will be carried out. The Saipem 7000 vessel will carry out offshore installation in the summer of 2006.
