Ophir restarts Bualuang field production

Production has resumed from the Bualuang field in the Gulf of Thailand, following a 10-day shutdown.

Ophir Energy, the operator of the field, said that production was restarted on September 2, after a completion of the final tie-in work of a water debottlenecking project.

“This was a highly complex brownfield project as work to upgrade the facilities was conducted over the last 5 months whilst minimizing production downtime,” Ophir Energy said in a statement.

Production is in the process of ramping up as the new system is brought on-stream and tested, but as of September 11the field was producing at an instantaneous rate of 9,700 bopd at a water disposal rate of 64,000 bwpd, an increase of 1,400 bopd compared to production in late August before commissioning of the new facilities.

Bill Higgs, Chief Operating Officer said that increasing water handling at Bualuang has added materially to the cash generation of the asset.

Capital expenditure to deliver the project was $20 million and it is expected to increase Net Present Value of Bualuang by $80 million and payback within 12-18 months.

Workscope

According to the company, more than 100.000 man-hours of work were carried out offshore by its local contractor Unithai, with the maximum POB of over 200 people supported by the accommodation barge “Posh Bawean” from July 23 to August 31.

The sub-surface part of the project was completed at the end of 2015 with the drilling of a new water disposal well and the workover of the existing water disposal wells.

This was followed in 2016 with a two-phase project to upgrade the surface facilities. The combined project has resulted in increasing the design capacity of the water handling and disposal system from 50,000 bwpd to 75,000 bwpd, Ophir Energy said.