Drilling uptick: Third development well spudded on Yumna field in Block 50
Ramping up efforts to unlock the hydrocarbon potential of Block 50 — the first producing block off Oman’s east coast, Masirah Oil Limited (MOL) brought a second development well targeting the Yumna Field into production, the latter announced on Monday.
Yumna-2 began producing on January 23, less than six weeks after it was spudded by Shelf Drilling’s Tenacious jack-up rig last December. Output from the development well averages 9,000 barrels/day of dry oil, supplementing flows from Yumna-1 which was producing at the rate 8,000 bpd (as reported by the company last July).
The uptick in drilling activity follows a decision by Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals last July to approve MOL’s Field Development Plan for the Yumna Field. On its heels came MOL’s Declaration of Commerciality, signalling its intent to fully develop the Yumna reservoir, as well as explore for hydrocarbons elsewhere in the Block.
Meanwhile, MOL, which has a 100 per cent interest in Block 50 and is the operator as well, continues to make headway in the drilling of a third production well. Yumna-3 was spudded last month by the Tenacious jack-up rig.
Upon completion of the drilling of the well, the jack-up rig will be relocated to the site of a new prospect, dubbed ‘Zakhera’, where an exploration well will be drilled targeting a structure deemed similar to the Yumna Field.
At the same time, to cater to the new crude oil volumes flowing from the Yumna reservoir,
MOL has begun upgrading the production facilities of its Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) deployed at site. The processing capacity of the unit is being doubled to handle the additional volumes anticipated from all three Yumna production wells.
The upgrade, targeted for completion before the end of Q1 2021, will boost the mobile production unit’s processing capacity to 30,000 bpd, according to a top official of Rex International, which owns a majority stake in MOL.
“We are very pleased that the Yumna 2 well was developed successfully and is now already producing 9,000 bpd’’, said Dan Broström, Executive Chairman of Rex International, a Singapore-based oilfield technology services firm.
“When Yumna 1 resumes production and the new Yumna 3 is completed, we are looking forward to steady production from the three Yumna wells. We are therefore in the process of upgrading the present maximum liquid processing capacity to handle up to 30,000 bpd. We will keep the market updated as soon as we have the results from Yumna 3 and the Zakhera exploration well’’, he added in a statement.
Masirah Oil Limited is majority owned by Rex’s local subsidiary Rex Oman Ltd (86.37 per cent) with minority stakes also held by Petroci, the National Oil Company of the Ivory Coast and Schroder & Co Banque SA.
CONRAD PRABHU
@conradprabhu
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