AMOCO MOVES TOWARD OIL DEVELOPMENT OFF CHINA

Amoco Orient Petroleum Co. has disclosed contracts amounting to $79 million for development of Liuhua 11-1 oil field off China in the South China Sea. Project contractor Reading & Bates Corp., Houston, awarded 540 million of work to Far East Levingston Shipbuilding Ltd. (FELS), Singapore (OGJ, JULY 11, p. 30). FELS and Keppel Shipyard Ltd., Singapore, will convert the West Stadrill semisubmersible drilling rig to a floating production system (FPS) for Liuhua. Work on the floater, to be renamed

July 18, 1994

3 min read

Amoco Orient Petroleum Co. has disclosed contracts amounting to $79 million for development of Liuhua 11-1 oil field off China in the South China Sea.

Project contractor Reading & Bates Corp., Houston, awarded 540 million of work to Far East Levingston Shipbuilding Ltd. (FELS), Singapore (OGJ, JULY 11, p. 30).

FELS and Keppel Shipyard Ltd., Singapore, will convert the West Stadrill semisubmersible drilling rig to a floating production system (FPS) for Liuhua. Work on the floater, to be renamed Nan Hai Tiao Zhan, is to begin immediately with completion slated for April 1995.

Work will include modifications to the rig's hull, mooring system, power generation and distribution systems, and drilling equipment.

An Amoco official said Liuhua 11-1 production is expected to begin in 1996, initially building to 50,000 b/d of oil and rising within a few months to 65,000 b/d.

Produced oil will be processed and stored for shipment to a Chinese port on board a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a capacity of about 720,000 bbl. An FPSO tanker conversion contract has vet to be awarded.

OTHER WORK

Reading & Bates also let a $25 million contract to Clough Stena (Asia) of Perth for installation of the FPS and FPSO and connecting pipelines.

Work will include installation of twenty-one 40 ton anchors and mooring s), stems, along with pipelines and risers from manifolds connecting to 20 subsea wellheads.

Coflexip SA, Boulogne, France, was awarded a $14 million contract by Reading & Bates for a 13% in. flexible pipeline to be used in the project.

Liuhua field lies on Contract Area 29/04, 120 miles southeast of Hong Kong in 1,000 ft of water. Amoco said the field's shallow reservoir requires wells with horizontal sections to maximize recovery and use of electric submersible pumps.

The official said Liuhua is the largest oil field found off China, with more than 1 billion bbl of oil in place. However, the oil is heavy, so recovery could be low.

Although Amoco declined to reveal reserves, Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., Edinburgh, estimates Amoco will produce 70-100 millon bbl of 200 gravity oil from Liuhua.

Total capital cost for Liuhua 11-1 development is estimated at $650 million. Partners are operator Amoco and Kerr-McGee Liuhua Ltd., each with a 24.5% interest, and China Offshore Oil Nan Hai East Corp., a unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp., with the remainder.