Project Profile
Value: US$700 million
Location: Al Jahrah (KW) Northern Kuwait
reservoirs : 35 tcf of non - associated gas
Production: 120,000 b/d
Capacity: 160 mcfpd of gas & 50,000 bpd of condensate
Startup Year: 2015
The Northern Fields include five main producing oil fields that are at different stages of development. The two giants, Raudhatain and Sabriyah, were the first to come onstream and have been producing for more than fifty years. Abdali and Ratqa on the Iraqi border are less developed, whilst Bahrah has been the focus of little development activity since its discovery in 1956. As part of its overall strategy, operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) plans to raise oil production capacity to one million b/d and non-associated gas production to one bcfd fby 2022 from the Northern Fields. This capacity expansion target is driven by three main projects.
Ratqa is an extension of Iraq\'s Rumaila super-giant. Found in north-west Kuwait in 1978 by KOC (nationalised since late 1975), it was first thought to be a small structure. Earlier, British geologists said Rumaila\'s north-south trend might extend deep into the south. In the early 1960s, the British authorities demarcated Kuwait\'s northerly border in areas disputed by Iraq. These included the Abdali oilfield to the east, which was discovered in the 1980s by KOC. At Ratqa, KOC found the crescentic trend to have 18[degrees] oil in Lower Fars sand, of the Oligo-Miocene Ghar at shallow depths. In the early 1980s it was established that lower Fms of the Cretaceous were part of Rumaila.After the war of February 1991, the UN drew a new border between Kuwait and Iraq. All Ratqa wells came within Kuwait. The field started up in January 1994 and its output now is averaging 15,000 b/d. The oil is piped to Rawdhatain\'s processing facilities and then on to the export system. In 1993, KOC was authorised to build a 40,000 b/d GC at the field, although work was delayed until mine clearance was completed. Abdali, on the border with Iraq, is producing about 10,000 b/d piped to Rawdhatain. Under an IBBC, Bahra, Ratqa and Abdali should be developed for a sustainable 20/25-year capacity of 150,000 b/d, compared with 40,000 b/d at present.
The project covers production and processing of 120,000 b/d of wet sour crude from the northern Ratqa and Abdali fields, with a maximum water cut rate of 40%. It will also produce more than 80 MCF/d of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The project will see the development of four oil fields Kuwait discovered in early 2006 which contain more than 35 trillion cubic feet of non-associated gas. Initial production will be 160 million cubic feet per day of gas and 50,000 barrels per day of condensate through early production facilities. A development plan is to finalise to produce up to 1 billion cubic feet per day by 2015 from the discoveries in the north of the country.
Operators:
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC): Operator with 100% interest
Contractors:
Al-Rashed Group: EPC contract
Processes Unlimited: EPC - Install EPF and pipeline
Terra Energy & Resource Technologies: Provide Subsurface Structural Features
TORR Canada Inc. (Now known as ProSep Inc.): Crude oil processing train
WorleyParsons: FEED contract