Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Oct. 10 -- The Timor Sea Designated Authority (TSDA) is again attempting to secure an operator for the mature Elang, Kakatua, and Kakatua North oil fields in the northwest corner of the joint petroleum development area administered by Australia and East Timor.
A first attempt earlier this year failed to attract any bidders.
Previous operator ConocoPhillips shut in the fields in early July because output had dropped to just 2,000 b/d from 32,500 b/d.
Elang and the Kakatua fields, the first to come on stream in the Timor Gap, were found by the Petroz-BHP Petroleum group in 1994. The three fields have produced 31.3 million bbl of oil via subsea wells and a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel from an originally estimated recoverable reserve of 32.6 million bbl.
TSDA said remaining reserves are more than 0.6 million bbl, and there may be an additional accumulation in the nearby Elang West structure.
Elang West-1, drilled in 80 m of water, intersected a gross hydrocarbon column 8.5 m thick in the main reservoir horizon and flowed 1,650 b/d on test from an 85-m thick fractured zone in overlying formations. A sidetrack intersected a 21-m gross hydrocarbon column.
Elang West-1 was suspended as a discovery but never developed.
TSDA is inviting expressions of interest for a second time from exploration, production, and service companies to establish an enhanced oil recovery production-sharing contract over the three-field complex.
Interested parties can access the data package and submit an application by Mar. 31, 2008.
