The Pyrenees development: a new oil development for Western Australia
Tony Slate A , Ralf Napalowski A , Steve Pastor A , Kevin Black A and Robert Stomp ABHP Billiton Petroleum
The APPEA Journal 50(1) 241-252 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ09014
Published: 2010
Abstract
The Pyrenees development comprises the concurrent development of three oil and gas fields: Ravensworth, Crosby and Stickle. The fields are located in production licenses WA-42-L and WA-43-L, offshore Western Australia, in the Exmouth Sub-basin. The development will be one of the largest offshore oil developments in Australia for some time. It is a complex subsea development consisting of a series of manifolds, control umbilicals and flexible flowlines tied back to a disconnectable floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The development involves the construction of 17 subsea wells, including 13 horizontal producers, three vertical water disposal wells and one gas injection well. The project is presently on production with first oil achieved during February 2010.
This paper gives an overview of the field development and describes the engineering and technologies that have been selected to enable the economic development of these fields.
The Pyrenees fields are low relief, with oil columns of about 40 metres in excellent quality reservoirs of the Barrow Group. Two of the fields have small gas caps and a strong bottom water drive common to all fields is expected to assist recovery. The oil is a moderate viscosity, low gas-to-oil ratio (GOR), 19°API crude. Due to the geometry of the reservoirs, the expected drive mechanism and the nature of the crude, effective oil recovery requires maximum reservoir contact and hence the drilling of long near horizontal wells. Besides the challenging nature of well construction, other technologies adopted to improve recovery efficiency and operability includes subsea multiphase flow meters and sand control with inflow control devices.
Tony Slate graduated for RMIT University Melbourne in 1981 with a BSc in applied geology before joining SADMP in 1981. He joined BHP in 1984 and worked as an exploration geologist and later as a development geologist on BHPBilliton’s operated developments in offshore Carnarvon, Timor Sea and Bonaparte basins in addition to operated onshore developments in Victoria, Vietnam and Pakistan. He is subsurface manager for Australian Production Unit in Perth, Australia. Member: PESA and SPE. tony.v.slate@bhpbilliton.com |
Ralf Napalowski holds a ME degree in petroleum engineering from Technical University of Clausthal, Germany. He has 19 years experience across the entire production engineering/technology discipline ranging from production management to conceptual well designs including project execution in the North Sea, Europe, North Africa and Australasia. He has been working on subsea sand control and sand management issues in the last 10 years and Napalowski served as the Co-chairman for the 2007 SPE ATW on sand control and is a member of the Technical Committee for the 2010 SPE APOGCE in Brisbane and on the SPE Production and Operations Advisory Committee. He is the production engineering supervisor for BHP Billiton Petroleum in Perth, Australia. Member: SPE and DGMK. ralf.napalowski@bhpbilliton.com |
Kevin Black holds a BEng (chemical) Hons from the University of Adelaide. Since graduation in 1985 he has worked as a process engineer for Exxon Chemicals in Melbourne and in various engineering roles globally, progressing to project management for BHP Billiton Petroleum, whom he joined in 1989. He is the Pyrenees deputy project manager in Perth responsible for facilities on the project and has been working on the project since 2004 when conceptual work commenced. kevin.r.black@bhpbilliton.com |
Robert Stomp holds a BS degree in petroleum engineering from New Mexico Tech. He has 23 years experience in well design and drilling/completion operations in areas including the Norway, Indonesia, Venezuela, GOM, and Australia, focusing primarily on subsea and sand-controlled completions. He is the drilling and completions engineering supervisor for BHP Billiton in Perth, Australia. Member: SPE. robert.stomp@bhpbilliton.com |
Steve Pastor graduated from the University of New Orleans in 1988 with a BSc in mechanical engineering before joining Chevron USA in 1989. He worked in New Orleans as a facilities engineer from 1989–94. After a year in drilling, Steve began working deepwater projects and worked as production team leader on Chevron’s Genesis deepwater development and as the Topsides Team Leader on Chevron’s Typhoon deepwater development. He studied business at Tulane University, graduating with an MBA in 1998. Steve joined BHP in 2001 in leadership roles on Atlantis and Shenzi deepwater GOM projects. He moved to Perth in 2007 and served as Project Director of the BHP Billiton-operated Stybarrow and Pyrenees Development Projects through 2010. Post Pyrenees start-up, Steve returned to Houston as Gulf of Mexico production unit manager for BHP Billiton-operated assets in the GOM. stephen.pastor@bhpbilliton.com |
