Woodside starts oil production from Enfield

July 24, 2006
Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Perth, has begun production from its Enfield oil project on Production License WA-28-L off North West Cape, Western Australia.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 24 -- Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Perth, has begun production from its Enfield oil project on Production License WA-28-L off North West Cape, Western Australia.

Enfield initially was scheduled to start-up in late May or early June, but damage to the Nganhurra floating production, storage, and offloading vessel shortly beforehand required sailing the vessel to Singapore for repairs (OGJ Online, July 10, 2006, Newsletter).

With the hook-up, testing, and commissioning of the Nganhurra FPSO completed, production is expected to increase steadily over the coming weeks, Woodside said.

The FPSO has a maximum 100,000 b/d production capacity and 900,000 bbl of oil storage capacity. The vessel lies about 50 km northwest of Exmouth in 390 m of water.

Enfield, discovered by Woodside in 1999, has reserves of 127 million bbl of oil.

Joint venture partners are operator Woodside 60% and Mitsui E&P Australia Ltd. 40%.