Bob Tippee
Managing Editor-Exploration and Economics
Natural gas projects are moving toward center stage in the United Arab Emirates.
Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.'s biggest oil producer, is preparing to boost liquefied natural gas exports along with oil productive capacity.
And Dubai is increasing its capacity to import gas from neighboring Sharjah, where an Amoco Corp. affiliate is increasing exploration around a recent gas/condensate discovery.
Dubai's growing gas needs result in part from a pilot miscible gas injection project scheduled to begin in offshore Fateh oil field this month.
ABU DHABI LNG
A third LNG processing train on Abu Dhabi's Gas Island is barely 1 year away from scheduled start-up.
The train, which Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Co. Ltd. (Adgas) calls the world's biggest, will double Das Island's production capacity to nearly 5 million metric tons/year.
Adgas is building the train to meet obligations under an expanded contract with Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. The original contract calls for delivery of 2 million tons/year of LNG and 800,000 tons/year of LPG through 1995. Deliveries began in 1977.
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. is the cryogenic technology licensor for the third train, Chiyoda of Japan the main contractor. The facility will have three steam turbine driven refrigeration compressors, each developing 36,000 kw.
The third train will liquefy 430 MMcfd of gas. Some of the gas will come from nonassociated Permian Khuff reserves in offshore Abu Al Bukhoosh field on the border with Iran (see map, OGJ, Sept. 23, 1991, p. 64). Total Abu Al Bukhoosh (Total-ABK) operates the field.
Khuff gas had been considered for gas lift in Abu Al Bukhoosh. Under current plans, all will go to Das for liquefaction.
Khuff nonassociated gas also is under development in Umm Shaif oil field operated by Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co. (ADMA-OPCO). Some Khuff production is on stream and is being injected for pressure maintenance. Umm Shaif Khuff supplies will supplement Abu Al Bukhoosh volumes going to Das.
ADMA-OPCO produces 450,000500,000 b/d of oil from Umm Shaif and Lower Zakum fields. Late last year it commissioned a 37 km, 36 in. oil trunk line from the Umm Shaif complex to Das Island and linked a new platform to an existing 30 in. trunk line to the island.
Umm Shaif associated gas and nonassociated gas from the Uweinat gas cap, along with associated gas from Lower Zakum field, feed the original LNG trains at Das Island.
State owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) owns 60% of ADMA-OPCO. Other owners are British Petroleum Co. plc 14.67%, Total 13.33%, and Japan Oil Development Co. 12%.
CAPACITY ADDITIONS
Most of Abu Dhabi's offshore oil production capacity additions are taking place in Upper Zakum field, where Zakum Development Co. (Zadco) has boosted the platform total to 84 and continues to drill.
Upper Zakum crude travels 50 km to Zirku Island for stabilization, storage, and shipping. Adnoc owns 88% of Zadco, Japan Oil Development 12%.
In addition to production from Upper Zakum, Zadco handles production from Umm Al Dalkh and Satah fields, which were developed by a separate joint venture of Adnoc and Japan Oil Development called Umm Al Dalkh Development Co. (Udeco). Zadco absorbed Udeco's activities in 1988.
Umm Al Dalkh production, in which Adnoc owns an 88% interest and Japan Oil Development 12%, moves to Zirku via Upper Zakum facilities. Production from Satah field - Adnoc 60%, Japan Oil Development 40%-goes directly to Zirku.
Remaining oil and gas production capacity additions are taking place on shore, where Abu Dhabi Co. for Onshore Operations (ADCO) is the operator.
Current expansion plans for the oil center in Bab field call for capacity to reach a target level of 250,000 b/d by yearend, not 100,000 b/d as reported incorrectly, (OGJ, Mar. 22, Newsletter). The field produced 100,000 b/d before the capacity expansion project began.
ADCO completed a key part of the project late last year when it commissioned three storage tanks at the Jebel Dhanna export terminal with capacities of 1 million bbl each. The tanks raised total storage capacity at the terminal to 8.342 million bbl (OGJ, Jan. 25, p. 50).
Under way now is construction of a major accommodation complex in Bab field. It will include 320 rooms for workers.
Also in Bab, ADCO is laying four replacement trunk lines to carry natural gas from producing areas to the Thamama C treatment plant. The project will increase gas production capacity from the Bab Cretaceous Thamama C reservoir to 850 MMscfd from 540 MMscfd.
The lines are being laid above ground on supports, replacing underground lines that passed through a salt formation and corroded. Three wells will be connected in the project, bringing the total for Thamama C gas production to 22. Two more wells may be tied in later.
The gas production expansion will yield unspecified new volumes of condensate, which can be blended with crude from the field.
Gas from the Thamama C plant fuels power stations in Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain and later will fuel a station planned at Medinat Zayed.
Adnoc holds a 60% interest in ADCO; BP, Shell, and Total 9.5% each; Exxon and Mobil 4.75% each; and Partex 2%.
OTHER PLANS
Operators in which Adnoc holds interests account for 95% of Abu Dhabi's oil flow. Four independent operators account for the rest, all of it offshore.
Companies in which Adnoc holds interests recently had 12 rigs running offshore and nine onshore. The company planned to add a 10th land rig in July. Independent operators had three active rigs off Abu Dhabi.
In addition to its capacity expansion plans, Adnoc has an extensive seismic survey program under way.
It recently had seven seismic crews in the field, five shooting 3D surveys onshore, one shooting a shallow water 3D survey, and one shooting marine 2D and 3D surveys.
Some of the 3D work is exploration. Adnoc also is shooting surveys over producing fields to improve its knowledge of Abu Dhabi's reservoirs and geology.
DUBAI EOR PILOT
Dubai Petroleum Co. (DPC) is scheduled to begin injection operations this month for a 3 year miscible gas pilot enhanced recovery project in offshore Fateh oil field.
The project will use about half of Fateh's production of rich natural gas, which will be injected intermittently under pressure to mix with oil in the upper Cretaceous Mishrif formation. Injected water will alternate with gas.
DPC estimates Fateh's recovery factor at more than 50%. Production attributable to a waterflood that began in 1972 has been about twice that of primary production.
Enhanced recovery might add a recovery factor increment of about one-half that of the waterflood. If successful, the pilot will be commercial by itself.
Like most other members of the U.A.E., the government of Dubai doesn't publish information on oil and gas production. Oil & Gas Journal estimated the emirate's average production last year at 402,000 b/d (see table, OGJ, Dec. 28, 1992, p. 44).
EOR pilot work so far has included a 3D seismic survey and installation of a small platform, designated ZH. In addition, DPC has drilled five wells, two for production and three for observation. Three existing wells, one a former producer, will inject gas for the pilot.
Under current plans, 3 years of evaluation and whatever construction may be required will follow 3 years of pilot production. DPC, however, can advance the schedule.
Fateh gas production now goes by pipeline to Jebel Ali, an industrial area south of the city of Dubai, by way of a 90 km pipeline. After processing by Dubai Gas Co., dry gas returns to the field as necessary for fuel. Jebel Ali industrial facilities use most of the production.
Commercial Fateh gas injection would use all the field's current gas flow and require supplementary supplies.
Conoco Inc. operates DPC, which works with the Dubai government under a concession agreement, and holds a 30% interest. Total and Repsol SA hold a combined 50% DPC interest under a 50-50 partnership called Dubai Marine Areas. Other interests are held by RWE-DEA AG of Germany 10% and Wintershall AG and Sun Co. Inc. 5% each.
OTHER DUBAI GAS WORK
At present, Dubai can import as much as 300 MMcfd of gas from Amoco Sharjah Oil Co.'s onshore fields in Sharjah. The gas travels from Amoco's Shalco gas processing plant through a 24 in. pipeline to Jebel Ali.
In January, Dubai began imports of gas from Mubarak field off Sharjah. The gas goes to Jebel Ali through a 90 km, 16 in. pipeline from a new platform in the field, operated by Crescent Petroleum Co. International Ltd. The pipeline, completed last August, has capacity of about 100 MMcfd.
Last July, DPC and McConnell Dowell Middle East commissioned a 60 km, 20 in. pipeline to Jebel Ali from ARCO Dubai Inc.'s onshore Margham retrograde condensate field. With a 16 in. parallel pipeline already in place, the new pipeline boosts deliverability of Margham production to Jebel Ali to about 500 MMcfd. The new line's capacity is 300 MMcfd.
Margham liquids are extracted at the Margham gas processing plant and exported via Jebel Ali. Dry gas is reinjected into the formation but is available for industrial use when needed.
The pipeline, owned by Dubai Supply Authority, was commissioned within 100 days of project approval.
Dubai gas consumption, most of it for power generation and industrial needs, is expected to average 425 MMcfd in 1994 and 550 MMcfd by 2000. Summer consumption peaks at more than 500 MMcfd.
Exploration activity is steady in Dubai, with DPC planning one offshore wildcat this year and ARCO Dubai at least one onshore test.
SHARJAH ACTIVE
Amoco's expanding exploration program and the start of exports of offshore gas to Dubai have lifted activity in Sharjah.
The 2 Kahaif gas/condensate discovery that Amoco reported late last year is on trend with the company's Moveyeid and Sajaa gas and retrograde condensate fields to the north and ARCO's Margham field to the south in Dubai (see map, OGJ, Nov. 2, 1992, p. 26).
The discovery flowed at rates as high as 73 MMcfd of gas and 1,615 b/d of condensate through a 56/64 in. choke with 5,200 psi flowing tubing pressure from 700 ft of Thamama pay.
It was the first of two wildcats Amoco drilled last year. The second was abandoned.
Amoco is shooting an extensive, wide line 2D seismic survey south from a point just north of the discovery. The survey may extend into the company's new block south of the Sajaa-Moveyeid-Kahaif acreage.
The productive onshore Sharjah-Dubai trend is a thrust belt that runs parallel to the Persian Gulf coast, analagous to the Overthrust Belt of the U.S. West.
Amoco, which holds its Sharjah acreage under concession agreements, drilled the Kahaif strike based on 3D seismic data interpretation.
It's part of a drilling program that began late in 1991 and has so far included seven wells in Sajaa and Moveyeid fields, the two exploration wells, and a Kahaif delineation well that recently reached total depth. The two budgeted wildcats are part of the program.
Before the current drilling program began, there had not been a well drilled in Sharjah in about 6 years. Amoco is using Nabors Rig 128 for the work.
Sajaa and Moveyeid fields produce about 600 MMcfd of gas and 38,000 b/d of condensate. In addition to the export line to Dubai, the fields have pipeline connections to the Emirates General Petroleum Co. system and Ras Al-Kaimah.
The Shalco LPG plant, with nameplate inlet capacity of 500 MMcfd, extracts 13,000 b/d of propane and butane, which with condensate are exported to the Far East from a terminal at Hamriyah.
Amoco is considering an expansion of the LPG plant to a nameplate capacity of 700 MMcfd and has let contract to Fluor Corp. to study costs.
OFFSHORE GAS EXPORTS
Offshore, Crescent Petroleum shut down Mubarak field last November to accommodate installation of the platform now producing gas for export to Dubai.
The platform has facilities to separate and stabilize condensate and to dry and compress gas. It caps a development program based on Mubarak's Thamama gas/condensate reservoir and including the drilling of two horizontal wells.
The first Thamama horizontal well, completed in mid-1992, reached total depth of 15,591 ft with an 870 ft horizontal section.
Crescent drilled the second well directionally to 17,400 ft, of which 800 ft was horizontal in Thamama pay.
The well flowed more than 45 MMcfd of gas and 6,300 b/d of condensate with wellhead flowing pressure of 2,181 psi on a restricted choke, OPEC Bulletin reported. Production potential is 80 MMcfd, calculated absolute open flow 130 MMcfd.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
