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Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Discovery to development: a subsurface case history of the Kitan Oil Field, Timor Sea, Joint Petroleum Development Area, Timor-Leste and Australia

Dave Wheller A , Grant Ellis A , Yohan Suhardiman A , Ryosuke Yokote A , Doani Selvaggi B , Giuseppe Maniscalco A and Joseph Derrij A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Eni Australia Ltd.

B Eni Indonesia.

The APPEA Journal 53(2) 439-439 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ12050
Published: 2013

Abstract

The Kitan Oil Field is located in the northern Bonaparte Basin in the Joint Petroleum Development Area, an area jointly administered by Timor-Leste and Australia. The Kitan structure is a Jurassic east-west trending tilted fault block.

The Kitan-1 exploration well was drilled and successfully tested in early 2008. Kitan-2 appraisal well was drilled immediately after Kitan-1 and intersected the reservoir up-dip from Kitan-1 and confirmed the extension of the oil accumulation.

The main oil-bearing section is in the shallow marine sandstone of the Middle Jurassic Laminaria Formation. It is divided into two reservoir zones: a blocky channelised sandstone (Unit-2) overlain by a dominantly finer-grained succession composed of coarsening-upwards para-sequences (Unit-1).

Kitan oil field was declared a commercial discovery in April 2008 and a field development plan was submitted in May 2009 and approved in April 2010. Four development wells were drilled of which three were completed as producers, each employing an intelligent completion design to enable independent control and monitoring of the two reservoirunits. The three wells were tied back subsea via flexible flowlines and risers to the Glas Dowr FPSO.

Oil production from the Kitan started in October 2011, about 3.5 years after the discovery of the field. The fast-track development of Kitan was achieved due to accelerated appraisal, prompt completion of studies, early commitment to long lead items, and excellent support from joint-venture partners and government.

Dave Wheller graduated from the University of Southampton in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree (geology) and from the University of Reading in 1992 with a master’s degree (sedimentology).

From 1992 to 1997, he worked for PGS Reservoir Consultants. He joined Anadarko Algeria Corporation in 1997 and spent the following eight years located in London and Algeria working in asset teams developing onshore oil and gas fields. In 2005, he joined Eni Australia Ltd as a senior geologist specialising in reservoir characterisation, geological modelling, and subsurface project development.

Grant Ellis graduated from the University of South Australia in 1971 with a BAppSc and in 1973 with a graduate diploma (economic geology). He spent 1972 as a well site geologist with Core Laboratories. From 1974 to 1978, he worked in sedimentary uranium exploration with Mines Administration. In 1978, he joined Marathon Petroleum Australia where he spent the next 16 years, initially in uranium and base metal exploration, and subsequently in oil exploration and development. With the closure of Marathon’s Perth office, he worked as a consultant before joining Hardy Petroleum in 1997. He is now Timor Sea exploration project leader and geological coordinator with Eni Australia Limited.

Yohan Suhardiman graduated from the French Institute of Petroleum (Institut Francais du Petrole School) in 2003 with an MSc (reservoir engineering). In 2003, he joined Total Indonesia as a reservoir engineer working on simulation study for Handil oil field. In 2006, he joined Eni Indonesia where he performed an integrated reservoir study for Bangka, Jau, and Gehem gas fields. In 2009, he was assigned to ENI HQ in Milan working for reservoir study department covering Russia, Indonesia, Australia, India, and Turkmenistan fields. In 2011, he was posted to Eni Australia in Perth, where he is now working as reservoir simulation engineer, performing integrated reservoir study and supporting the reserves evaluation of exploration prospects.

Ryosuke Yokote (Rio) graduated from Tohoku University in 1995 with an MSc (resource Engineering).

In 1995, he joined INPEX as a petroleum engineer working in Australia, Indonesia, and Japan. He worked for well tests for the Ichthys field in Australia and the Abadi field in the Timor Sea, Indonesia. While he was an interface engineer for Ichthys project, he extended his expertise to flow-assurance engineering with a focus on well modelling. In 2009, he was employed by Eni Australia in Perth, where he is now working as a senior petroleum engineer in the operations and reservoir department, supporting daily production and drilling/completions operations.

Member: SPE.

Doani Selvaggi has more than seven years of international experience in reservoir and petroleum engineering, covering reservoir modelling, history matching, forecasting techniques, reservoir management, reservoir uncertainty evaluation, production optimisation, andwell performance analysis for both onshore and offshore fields.

In 2005, he started his career in the oil and gas industry as a reservoir engineer working on Nigerian fields. In 2007, he was posted to Eni Australia where he worked as reservoir engineer until 2011 when he was appointed as reservoir team leader in Eni Indonesia.

He has a BSc (petroleum engineering) from the Central University of Venezuela in 2004 and an MSc (petroleum engineering) from the Polytechnic University of Turin.

Giuseppe Maniscalco graduated from Camerino University in 1993. He started working in civil construction as a consultant geologist. In 1997, he started his career in the oil and gas industry with Eni as a reservoir geologist. In 2000, he was posted to Ortona (Italy) and later in 2001 to Ravenna to monitor production in these districts. In 2003, he was assigned to Eni Pakistan as a development geologist and then as team leader in the reservoir department, responsible for the development of the Kirthar and Middle Indus assets. In 2008, he was appointed geoscience manager of Eni Iran responsible for subsurface and reservoir activity of the South Pars and Darquain projects. Since the end of 2011, he has been the reservoir manager for Eni Australia Ltd.

Joseph began his career as a field engineer for Schlumberger in formation evaluation (drilling and measurements).

He graduated from RMIT in 2006 and obtained an MEngSc (petroleum engineering) from UNSW in 2011. Most recently, he has worked as a petroleum engineer, supporting operations and development of the Kitan oilfield (Timor Sea) and Blacktip offshore gas field and pipeline network (Bonaparte basin), as well as working on exploration prospects in the region. Prior to this, he worked in subsurface developments and production operations on the QCLNG project, developing unconventional resources in southeastern Queensland.


References

Shuqiang, F., 2010—Upstream oil and gas project development timing. International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Beijing, China, 8–10 June, SPE 130008.

Yokote, R., Milne, J., Sanasi, C., Hosatte, P., Mukashev, N., and Nishant, C., 2012—Intelligent well completion in the Kitan Oil Field. SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Perth, Australia, 22–24 October, SPE 158463.