Rick Wilkinson
OGJ correspondent
MELBOURNE, Mar. 15 -- A five-company consortium headed by Roc Oil Co. Ltd., Sydney, has approved development of Cliff Head oil field, the first field to be developed in the offshore portion of Western Australia's North Perth basin.
Cliff Head was discovered in 2001, and there since have been five appraisals to delineate the various parameters of the faulted structure. The most recent—Cliff Head-6—was completed as a producer.
The field is estimated to contain proved and probable reserves of 14 million bbl. Production will begin in the first half of 2006 at an initial rate of 10,000 b/d.
The $227 million (Aus.) development project calls for an unmanned offshore platform, with capacity for nine wells, in 18 m of water. Five wells will be initial oil producers and two, water injector wells. The remaining two well slots will be held in reserve should additional wells be required in the future.
Dual 14 km pipelines will be installed, one to transport oil to a shore-based treatment plant at Arrowsmith and one to return produced water to the field for reinjection into the reservoir. The processing plant will be built on the site of a former lime plant. Oil will be trucked 350 km from Arrowsmith to BP Australia Ltd.'s Kwinana refinery south of Perth.
Roc Oil, the operator, has a 37.5% interest in the venture. Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd. of Sydney holds 27.5%, Japan's Wandoo Petroleum Pty. Ltd. 24%, Voyager Energy Ltd. of Perth 6%, and CIECO Exploration & Production (Australia) Pty. Ltd. 5%.
