mercredi, mai 18, 2005

Shell & PetroChina developing China's Changbei gasfield

PetroChina and Shell China Exploration & Production today revealed they are jointly proceeding with the development of the Changbei natural gas field in China's Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Shell, which will be the operator of the project under a production sharing contract with PetroChina, today signed drilling contracts and letters of intent for the award of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the field development.

This marks the start of development of the field, which is expected to begin delivering 52.97 bcf a year of natural gas to markets in Beijing, Shandong, Hebei, and Tianjin by 2007, rising to 105.9 bcf by 2008. Total development costs for the full lifecycle of the project will be about US$600 million, covering the construction of the central processing facilities, inter-field pipelines, and development drilling of about 50 horizontal and multilateral wells over 10 years.
The contract for the drilling rigs and associated services covering the drilling of about 30 wells over the next six years was awarded to the No. 1 Drilling Company of Liaohe Petroleum Exploration Bureau. A four-year directional drilling contract was awarded to Halliburton Energy Services (Tianjin) Ltd, while a three-year contract for drilling fluids and associated services was awarded to the Engineering Technology Institute of Changqing Petroleum Exploration Bureau.

A consortium comprising China Petroleum Engineering Company, Southwest Company, and Sichuan Petroleum Engineering Construction Company signed an letter of intent for the EPC contract for the central gas processing facility. China Liaohe Petroleum Engineering signed another letter of intent for the EPC contract for the inter-field pipeline infrastructure.

A second Shaan-Jing pipeline for transporting the gas to Beijing is already being built by PetroChina and is scheduled to go into operation by the middle of this year.
Yan Cunzhang, president of PetroChina International, said, "The Changbei project is the largest onshore Chinese-foreign exploration and production project. It will harness the best of our two companies in the project, combining Chinese design, materials, and services with sophisticated technologies from Shell. I am looking forward to the success of Changbei and further opportunities to work with Shell both at home and overseas."

Yves Merer, president of Shell China Exploration and Production, said, "We are very pleased to take a final investment decision on this project bringing our experience in subsurface reservoir management and advanced drilling technology to this partnership with PetroChina. Changbei is a perfect fit with Shell's strategy to grow its portfolio of integrated gas and to supply clean energy to meet China's energy demand from both indigenous and external resources."

The Changbei Field, which covers 1,600 sq km, is predicted to have an annual production of some 105.9 bcf for 20 years. Shell is to serve as the operator of the development project with an entitlement to about 50% of gas volumes over the 20-year project lifetime.

(5/17/2005 - OGI: Shanghai)

posted by Quidam @ 2:49 PM