Oman first tight gas project to come on stream

The gas field is in Block 60 and will bring the first unconventional tight gas to the Sultanate. Earlier this month, the company started the commissioning of its newly built gas processing plant aimed at producing, processing and exporting of unconventional tight gas into the Government Gas System for the first time in the country’s history.

Full commercial operations are scheduled for the end of October. An investment of $1bn has so far been made in the processing plant, expected to have production of 70mn standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) by the end of this year. Along with gas, the facility will also produce around 6,000bpd of condensates around the same time frame.

Sulaiman al Zakwani, the company’s chief corporate officer and project director, said:”When we were awarded the Block in late 2010, Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production was considered a new player in the industry but we took on board one of the most challenging unconventional gas projects in Oman and arguably globally. We are currently acknowledging our success as our team stepped up to the challenge and refused to look back. It was definitely a SONY DSCrollercoaster, but in the end, we succeeded in seeing it through.”

Block 60, a roughly 1,580km2 concession encompassing the wilayats of Ibri and Haima, is owned and operated by OOCEP, who acquired it in December 2010. OOCEP have so far drilled 40-odd wells targeting unconventional gas at 4.5km depths in the Barik reservoir.

Al Zakwani explains. “Block 60 is quite unlike most other unconventional gas fields in Oman. The reservoir parameters are far more complex than some of the discovered tight gas fields in the country. Combining both the know-how and capabilities provided us with an unrivalled advantage when it comes to unconventional tight gas development.”

Buoyed by its success, OOCEP says it wants to leverage the gained expertise in exploiting unconventional oil and gas fields that have defied previous attempts to unlock their potential. “OOCEP’s success in Block 60 has whetted our appetites to accomplish more. We want to position ourselves as pioneers in the development of unconventional fields, such as tight gas, tight oil, shale gas and heavy oil. The journey from a start-up to a full-fledged operator of one of Oman’s most challenging and complex gas field developments- in three short years — has been nothing short of extraordinary, says the Chief Corporate Officer (CCO).

“When we inherited Block 60 three years ago, we acquired a green-field project with only seven wellheads in the desert. But by the time a Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) and Field Development Plan (FDP) were signed with the Ministry of Oil and Gas, we had an energetic tendering programme under way. Today, we have a capital project worth around $1 billion and ready to commence commercial production — a feat that was accomplished in under three years.”

A Gathering and Export System, with a pair of 80km long pipelines, already carries natural gas and condensates to a metering station at Barik. While the condensates are received by PDO’s facilities, the gas is exported into the government gas system operated by Oman Gas Company (OGC).

As part of the commissioning phase that began last week, small volumes of gas were introduced into the Gas Processing Plant and associated facilities — an exercise expected to last for several weeks. The process will allow for plant systems to be progressively fired up and assessed for their performance. The gas and condensates will then be conditioned to meet the exacting specs set by OGC and PDO.

Production will be maintained at 70 mmscfd for a period of six years as part of Phase 1 of the Abu Butabul field development. During this period, the drilling campaign will continue adding few wells per year to sustain this output, with total investment in this phase projected to reach $2.5bn, says Al Zakwani.

“No two areas of the field are similar in terms of characteristics. The fluid distribution varies from place to place, which causes many challenges for our engineers. Nevertheless, our team has developed a very good feel for this block, and is able to make predictions that come very close to the data that is yielded once the field is drilled, fracced and tested.”

Phase 1 has primarily targeted the centre of the Block where the reservoir quality is generally good with new exploration efforts focusing on the north and south of the concession. Last week OOCEP announced the spudding of its first exploration well in Block 60. A second exploratory well is proposed to be drilled in the south of the block in 2015.