Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Oct. 30 -- BHP Billiton has shut in the Griffin oil field off Western Australia in licence WA-10-L since it has come to the end of its economic life after 15 years of production.
Production reached a peak flow of 80,000 boe/d in the early stages of the development, but the field is now down to an average of only 4,000 boe/d due to natural depletion. The field was originally estimated to have a life of just 7 years. Total production from the field has been 178 million boe.
Production has been processed on the Griffin Venture floating production, storage, and offloading vessel—one of the first such vessels off Australia. Gas was piped ashore near Onslow for addition to the domestic gas grid. There is no word on the future of Griffin Venture at this stage.
Griffin and nearby associated Scindian and Chinook fields, in the Carnarvon basin about 62 km off Onslow, were found during an exploration program in 1989-90. The fields came on stream in 1994 through subsea wells connected to flowlines leading to the FPSO.
Joint venture partners are BHP, operator, with 45%, ExxonMobil Corp., 35%, and Inpex of Japan, 20%.