CHEVRON HOMES IN ON PAPUA DEVELOPMENT

South Pacific Chevron Co. has awarded a 3 year contract valued at more than $150 million to Bechtel Australia Pty. Ltd. for engineering and procurement of its Kutubu oil development project in Papua New Guinea. The unit of Bechtel Corp. also will provide construction supervision assistance to Chevron, which will manage construction in the southern highlands (see map, OGJ, Dec. 17, 1990, p. 28).

Aug. 5, 1991

3 min read

The unit of Bechtel Corp. also will provide construction supervision assistance to Chevron, which will manage construction in the southern highlands (see map, OGJ, Dec. 17, 1990, p. 28).

By June 1992, Chevron plans to start producing crude oil for export from initial development of lagifu-Hedinia, Usano, and Agogo fields. By June 1993, it plans to have the project producing at the design volume of about 130,000 b/d.

Outside of Bechtel's responsibilities will be construction of a crude oil pipeline system of about 161 miles through the jungles to an offshore loading berth.

BECHTEL'S ROLE

Bechtel will perform engineering and procurement in its project office in Brisbane, Australia. Staffing will reach 150.

Construction will be handled out of several constructions camps with a peak subcontractor work force projected at 1,200 craftsmen, mostly Papua New Guinean and Australian. Bechtel also expects to have nearly 100 employees on the site to assist with construction management.

Because of remote location of the Kutubu project, the operation will be self-contained and self-supporting.

A recently completed 1 mile airfield carved out of the jungle will accommodate three Hercules aircraft assigned full time to the project. "We had to design all facilities around capacity of the Hercules because this will be the only access into the site during construction," said Michael Thiele, senior vice-president and manager of Bechtel Corp.'s pipeline operations.

A permanent 75 mile access road into the main site also will be built, requiring 2-3 years of construction.

In addition to a crude oil gathering system, some wellhead crude oil/gas separation, and a pipeline system, there will be a network of infield roads from wellsites to the central processing facilities (CPF). The CPF will be a gas/oil separation and crude stabilization plant with a capacity of about 130,000 b/d.

Associated gas from the CPF will be treated, then reinjected into the reservoir for pressure maintenance. A tank farm and pump station for transport of the treated crude oil through the export pipeline also will be built.

The project includes building a 1,500 b/d refinery at one of the producing wells. It will process crude to provide fuel for the Hercules, helicopters, pickup trucks, and construction equipment. That will eliminate the need for helicopters to fly in fuel to support construction operations.

The project will include construction of an operations center, a self-supporting infrastructure of office buildings and permanent camps.