Don Southwest commences produ

RNS Number : 8699U

Petrofac Limited

01 July 2009

 



PETROFAC LIMITED

DON SOUTHWEST COMMENCES PRODUCTION

*  2 Don SW wells operational, 2 injection wells to be brought on-stream during H2 2009

*  60ft oil column discovered in adjacent fault block - further evaluation underway

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, is pleased to announce the commencement of production from the Don Southwest (Don SW) field in the UK North Sea. Petrofac Energy Developments is Operator of the field with a 60% interest, alongside Valiant Petroleum which has a 40% interest.

Production from the field has commenced from two production wells and follows first oil from the West Don field on 28 April. The first tanker shipment of approximately 472,000 barrels of oil from the West Don field has been delivered to a terminal in Rotterdam. The second production well and the injection well on West Don are expected to be brought on stream in the early part of the second half of 2009, with the injection wells on Don SW following in the latter part of year. 

A second phase of the Don SW development is currently in the advanced stages of planning, with a further producer/injector pair planned to be drilled and brought on-stream during the second half of 2010.

During the drilling of the Area 22 injection well, the wellbore was sidetracked to an adjacent fault block, Area H, directly south of the Don SW field, to investigate the northern part of the block at low incremental cost.  The sidetracked well revealed a 60 feet oil column in the Brent formation. The structure and lateral extent is currently being interpreted.

Amjad Bseisu, chief executive, Petrofac Energy Developments commented: "The commencement of production from Don SW represents another major milestone in the development of the Don area. We are now firming up our plans for a 2010 campaign for optimising Area 5/6 development and the early indications of our success in Area H gives us confidence in the prospectivity of the surrounding Areas."

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

Petrofac Limited                 Ayman Asfari, Group Chief Executive Keith Roberts, Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Low, Head of Investor Relations	[phone]
Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Ann-marie Wilkinson Olly Scott	[phone]

Notes to Editors

Don Southwest (Don SW)

Petrofac Energy Developments assumed operatorship of Don SW after purchasing interests from former co-owners BP and Conoco in December 2006. Petrofac as operator holds 60% equity in licence P.236 (Block 211/18a-Don Southwest Area) with the sole partner Valiant North Sea Limited holding 40%.  

Don SW is an oil field comprising 450ft thick Brent sequence sandstones, as producing in the nearby Thistle and South Magnus fields. The under-saturated oil is held in a combination of dip and fault traps at a depth of 11,000 to 11,500ft. 

West Don

West Don is located in the northern North Sea, approximately 150 km northeast of the Shetland Islands and 12 km north of the Thistle field in a water depth of approximately 500ft.  

The Northern Producer floating production facility, which recently finished an assignment on the Galley field, will be utilised for processing fluids from both fields ahead of export. It has been secured for field life under a lease arrangement, with lease cost based on an oil throughput tariff dependent on Brent oil prices.

Oil export from the Northern Producer will take place initially via offshore tanker, switching to pipeline export via a subsea tie-back to existing infrastructure in early 2010.  

Petrofac Energy Developments assumed operatorship of West Don after purchasing a 40% equity interest in Block 211/18a (West Don Area) from former co-owners BP and Conoco in February 2006. The West Don field straddles Blocks 211/13b and 211/18a (West Don Area) (licences P.1200 and P.236 respectively). Owners of the two blocks agreed a fixed field unitisation, which resulted in Petrofac owning 27.7% of the West Don unit.

Owner    Equity %	211/18 (P.236)	211/13b (P.1200)	Unit Area
Petrofac	43.12		27.700
First Oil	30.00		19.275
Valiant Petroleum	26.88		17.275
Nippon Oil Exploration and Production (UK) Ltd		50.00	18.500
Stratic Energy		50.00	17.250

The West Don field was discovered in 1975 by well 211/18-9 that contained oil in sandstones of the Middle Jurassic Brent Group. The West Don reservoir comprises circa 470ft thick Brent sandstones. The under-saturated oil is held in an elongate easterly dipping, fault bounded reservoir at a depth of greater than 10,600ft.

Petrofac

Petrofac is a leading international provider of facilities solutions to the oil & gas production and processing industry, with a diverse customer portfolio including many of the world's leading integrated, independent and national oil & gas companies. Petrofac is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: PFC).  

The group delivers services through seven business units: Engineering & Construction, Engineering & Construction Ventures, Engineering Services, Offshore Engineering & Operations, Training, Production Solutions and Energy Developments.

Through these businesses Petrofac designs and builds oil & gas facilities; operates, maintains and manages facilities and trains personnel; enhances production; and, where it can leverage its service capability, develops and co-invests in upstream and infrastructure projects. Petrofac's range of services meets its customers' needs across the full life cycle of oil & gas assets.

With more than 11,000 employees, Petrofac operates out of five strategically located operational centres, in Aberdeen, Sharjah, Woking, Chennai and Mumbai and a further 19 offices worldwide. The predominant focus of Petrofac's business is on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), the Middle East and Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Asia Pacific region.

For additional information, please refer to the Petrofac website at www.petrofac.com.

 

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