Page 11 - MEOG Week 38 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

KOC launches long-

delayed gathering centre

KUWAIT STATE-OWNED Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) output from South Ratqa would grow to 120,000
announced this week that operations had begun bpd, rising to 230,000 bpd by 2030/31, with
at a gathering centre that was originally con- heavy oil from the nearby Umm Niqa field seen
tracted in 2014. climbing first to 50,000 bpd and then to 80,000
The new GC-31 facility adds 100,000 bar- bpd over the same period. A fourth phase would
rels per day (bpd) of crude processing capacity then see Ratqa’s production lifted to 325,000 bpd
alongside 62.5mn cubic feet of gas and 240,000 while the final phase envisages output from the
bpd of treated water. two fields totalling 430,000 bpd.
GC-31 which was built by UK-based Pet- Construction is believed to be around 93%
rofac is the third and final gathering centre to complete on the heavy oil facilities at South
be installed under $2.2bn worth of contracts Ratqa with roughly 930 wells having been drilled
awarded by KOC in 2014. to allow for increased production.
The GC-29 and GC-30 facilities have already The facilities will play an important role in
been completed by their contractors — Dodsal Kuwait achieving its output capacity target of
and Larsen & Toubro, both based in India. Ini- 4mn barrels per day by 2040, up from the current
tially due for completion in 2018, all three fell 3.1-3.2mn bpd.
well behind schedule. The GCs were valued at
$641mn, $793mn and $754mn, respectively. Midstream momentum
The midstream projects were due for com- Meanwhile, three other GCs are planned Pet-
pletion in 2017 ahead of the scheduled commis- rofac is still working to construct the GC-32
sioning of the first phase of the Lower Fars Heavy facility for which it was awarded a $1.3bn EPC
Oil project at the northern Ratqa field. contract in 2017 at the supergiant Burgan field
These GCs are key to Kuwait’s efforts to ramp which at 1.7mn bpd accounts for more than half
up heavy oil production in the north of the coun- of Kuwaiti oil output.
try. Heavy crude is produced under the Lower The new GC, to be located 53 km south of
Fars Heavy Oil Project which comprises Umm Kuwait City, is designed to separate sour oil and
Niqa and South Ratqa. gas from the Arifjan, Marat, Minagish-Oolite
The broader Ratqa asset was discovered in the and Burgan Wara areas of the field from sweeter
late 1970s, but efforts to develop the field were streams and will have capacity to process 400,000
largely stifled until the UK’s Petrofac was finally bpd of liquids into 120,000 bpd of crude, 95.4
awarded a $4.2bn engineering, procurement & mmcf (2.7 mmcm) per day of gas and 280,000
construction (EPC) contract to execute the first bpd of water.
phase in early 2015. This called for combined The last figure is indicative of the problem
production of 60,000 bpd by last year. faced across KOC’s maturing fields of a steeply
Output from the two fields under the project increasing water cut, which at Burgan is expected
reached a first phase plateau of 75,000 bpd fol- to rise to 70% by the end of the field’s life.
lowing the start of operations in February 2020. The scope of works on the EPC contract
Then in September, KOC was reported to includes an intermediate slug-catcher, 15 man-
have cancelled a project to drill 11 wells as part ifolds, 19 import pipelines and four export pipe-
of the country’s efforts to expand the production lines – with the crude to be sent to the South
of heavy oil. The $400mn contract was reported Tank Farm for export, the gas to be piped to
to have already been awarded to an international Acid Gas Recovery plants at Al-Ahmadi and the
company, but that it was yet to be signed. wastewater to be delivered to a nearby effluent
According to KOC’s original plan, by 2026/27 water disposal facility.™

Week 38 22•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11