New strategy to achieve early monetisation of oil, gas finds

By Conrad Prabhu — MUSCAT: APRIL 30 - Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is employing an award-winning concept to achieve the early monetisation of newly discovered hydrocarbon assets at key locations across its Block 6 license. The strategy centres on the use of Early Development Facilities (EDF) to bring new oil and gas finds into operation “in the shortest time and lowest possible cost”.  This is in line with the majority state-owned company’s wider efforts to boost production and thereby help bolster government revenues. Early Development Facilities are planned at newly discovered fields, such as Tayseer, Hawqa Zauliyah and Sadad North, according to the PDO.  But central to the success of the company’s early monetisation strategy — which earned PDO a coveted ADIPEC 2016 Best Practice Award – is the use of the DBOOM (Design, Build, Own, Operate and Maintain) concept to drive this initiative. “The EDFs will be owned, designed, fabricated, installed, operated and maintained by a contractor with PDO paying a monthly lease, based on performance,” said PDO in a report on the groundbreaking strategy. “The approach allows the development of partial volumes, accelerating early sweet gas and condensate, with no capital expenditure up front. Payment will only start after successful commissioning of the EDF and is spread over its operational life,” it added. According to PDO, first in line to be developed based on the DBOOM model is Tayseer, a sour gas field that was discovered barely two years ago in December 2014. The field is located around 35 km north of PDO’s Budour NE fields and 20km west of Al Noor Production Station. The first well drilled on the field produced gas at the average rate of 150,000 cubic metres/day (m3/d) and condensate at the rate of 100 cubic metres per day. Production from the second well is envisaged as part of the Early Development Facility (EDF) with output projected at 1 million m3/d.  The facility is expected to be brought on stream in 2019. Gas Initially in Place (GIIP) in the Tayseer field is currently estimated at a prodigious 76.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). “Tayseer, the first high sour EDF project in Oman using a DBOOM strategy, will be on stream in the second half of 2018 and will involve the complete design and development of on-and off-plot facilities to produce one million cubic metres of sweet gas a day, along with up to 1,000 m3 of stabilised condensate a day,” said PDO in its report. Significantly, the DBOOM concept will contribute to sizable cost savings as well as maximise In-Country Value (ICV) opportunities, according to the company. Cost savings are projected as much as 30 per cent through the use of contractor standard designs and fit-for-purpose material. ICV will also be enhanced through the use of local firms to complete construction, assembly and pre-commissioning, it explained.