Page 10 - NorthAmOil Week 38

NorthAmOil PERFORMANCE NorthAmOil
Chevron approves St Malo waterflood plan
GULF OF MEXICO
CHEVRON has announced that it has sanc- tioned a waterflood project aimed at boosting recovery from the St Malo field in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. The project forms part of the super-major’s strategy to maximise production from its existing operations in the Gulf at a time when offshore producers remain hesitant to invest in new developments.
The waterflood project is part of the fourth phase of Chevron’s Jack/St Malo development and will be the company’s first to target the Wilcox trend. It will include the drilling of two new production wells, three new injector wells and topsides injection equipment for the Jack/ St Malo platform. The project is expected to con- tribute an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of over 175mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), extending the life of the field.
Chevron said in a statement that the St Malo field had an estimated remaining production life of 30 years. The entire Jack/St Malo development is projected to yield over 500mn boe over this period, including the boost from the waterflood project.
“The St Malo field is a world-class asset that is positioned for highly economic brownfield
development,” Chevron’s president of North America exploration and production, Steve Green, said. “With our leading technology, expe- rienced workforce and broad portfolio, we’re delivering value in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Chevron follows in the footsteps of another super-major, BP, which started a major water injection project at its Thunder Horse field in 2016. Generally speaking, though, water injec- tion is not used as often in the deepwater Gulf as elsewhere, such as conventional onshore wells. This is because deepwater wells tend to have strong initial recovery rates, while the costs associated with additional water injec- tion can be a deterrent. However, deepwater producers are currently exploring all options to boost the productivity of their existing operations.
Chevron is the third-largest producer in the Gulf and owns a 51% working interest in the St Malo field. The other partners in the field include MP Gulf of Mexico, with a 25% stake, which is in turn owned 80% by Murphy Oil and 20% by Petrobras. Equinor owns a 21.5% inter- est in St Malo, while ExxonMobil and Eni each hold 1.25%.™
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
IOC looks to up US oil imports
US-INDIA
STATE-RUN Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has said it is willing to increase crude imports from the US once export bottlenecks have been resolved.
The bottlenecks prevent the berthing and loading of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) at terminals, IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh told the Times of India.
IOC’s former finance director, A K Sharma, told the daily that US exporters use smaller ves- sels to transport oil from the terminal to VLCCs anchored in deeper waters. “They load their VLCCs and then offer in the market. As buyers, this ties us down to their vessels, which some- times may not work to our advantage. But things can improve with de-bottlenecking,” Sharma said.
While noting that using smaller vessels was not an economical option, Singh said US sup- plier were working on de-bottlenecking and hoped“tocompleteitbyJanuary”.
India has been ramping up its purchases of US oil in response to the re-imposition of sanc- tions in Iran as well as a means to diversify its import portfolio to include less geopolitically risky suppliers.
IOC became India’s first state-run refiner to
sign an annual supply contract for US crude in February and the contract began in April. Reu- ters cited an unnamed trade source as saying at the time that Norway’s Equinor had agreed to supply IOC with a variety of US crude grades.
The company has signed term contracts for the supply of 4.6mn tonnes (92,000 barrels per day (bpd)) of US crude this year.
India has been forced to take stock of its oil supply situation in the aftermath of recent attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure. While the kingdom was quick to promise that it would get production back to full speed by the end of November, the attacks have exposed the vulnerability of relying on the volatile Middle East for oil imports. India relies on foreign oil to meet more than 80% of its demand, with four Middle Eastern countries topping the South Asian country’s list of suppliers in financial year 2018-2019.
While Iraq came first, supplying 46.61mn tonnes (936,000 bpd) of crude, Saudi Ara- bia came second, delivering 40.33mn tonnes (810,000 bpd) of oil. Iran was third with 23.9mn tonnes (480,000 bpd) of exported crude, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in fourth place with 17.49mn tonnes (351,000 bpd).™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 38 24•September•2019