Premier Oil to start FPSO charter for Chim Sao off Vietnam

Premier Oil Vietnam Offshore BV will commence in this year’s fourth quarter the charter of the Lewek EMAS floating production, storage, and offloading vessel from EOC Ltd under a $1 billion, 12-year contract secured in 2009.

The FPSO will process oil from Chim Sao field on Block 12W in the Nam Con Son basin, about 350 km off southern Vietnam.

Premier Oil drilled the discovery well, Blackbird 2E-CS-1X, in 2006 to a 4,058 m depth and found more than 70 m of net pay in four oil-bearing intervals in the Middle Dua target. The well is in a tilted fault block, 21 km southwest of Premier Oil’s Dua field.

The field development involves producing oil and associated gas to an unmanned, minimum facility wellhead platform in 100 m of water and then to the FPSO. A 100 km pipeline will transport the gas to the existing Nam Con Son pipeline for sale to the Vietnamese domestic market.

Australian company Santos, one of the partners in field, estimates that the field contains 48 million boe of proved and probable reserves and expects a 25,000 b/d plateau production from the field.

The FPSO charter has a primary term of 6 years, with six renewable 1-year extension options. The converted vessel, which includes a disconnectable turret mooring system, was christened at Singapore’s Keppel shipyard on April 15.

EOC said the FPSO has a design for producing up to 50,000 bo/d and storing up to 680,000 bbl of oil. A 50-50 joint venture of EOC and PetroVietnam Transportation Corp. will operate and maintain the vessel.

Operator Premier Oil holds a 53.125 percent interest in the field. Partners are Santos 31.875 percent and PetroVietnam 15 percent.

Tags: Premier Oil

Posted by VBN on Apr 20 2011. Filed under Oil-Gas & Petroleum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry