In January, the BMG Joint Venture (comprising equal partners Anzon and Beach Petroleum) delivered its first shipment of full field development crude to Shell’s Geelong refinery. The 167,000bbl cargo delivered gross sales revenue of $12 million.
The next cargo, totalling about 220,000bbl, is due to be delivered next week. Thereafter tanker loads of about 550,000bbl are expected to be delivered each month, according to Anzon.
“At this time, marketing of the crude is on ‘spot’ basis, however, longer term offtake arrangements are currently being reviewed to maximise the BMG Joint Venture’s sales and offtake terms,” the company said.
The full field development for Basker-Manta – the oil component of the BMG project –was completed last December when the umbilicals and flowlines and the subsea production manifold were installed, connecting all five Basker and Manta wells to the Crystal Ocean floating production, storage and offtake vessel.
Production from the Manta 2A well started on December 17. Following this, the other three oil producers and the gas re-injector were commissioned and brought online in stages. So far, production rates have reached up to 16,000 barrels of oil per day and they are expected to reach 20,000bopd once unusually high air temperatures in the Bass Strait have normalised, allowing gas cooling systems to operate optimally.
So far, full field production has totalled about 350,000bbl. When combined with output from the JV’s extended production test, this means total production from the BMG fields has now exceeded 1MMbbl.
“The data achieved during production will allow further assessment of the oil and gas resources,” Anzon said. “This additional data is expected to warrant additional drilling which is being considered for 2008.”
The expansion of the oil development will involve drilling up to three additional wells and installing an additional manifold.
“Drilling is anticipated to occur in 2008 and the number of wells will be defined on the basis of current knowledge and production history over the next 12-18 months,” Anzon said.
“The gas development will involve drilling gas wells into the Manta and Gummy fields with a view to commence production in the first half of 2009. The gas sales agreement is at an advanced stage and is expected to be executed within the coming weeks. The overall approval of the project will follow before mid-2007.”
Anzon said once gas production starts, the current FPSO will probably be superseded by a much larger FPSO that can enable oil production at rates of more than 30,000bopd and accommodate processing equipment required to provide sales quality gas.
“By processing the gas offshore, there will be a minimum footprint onshore and the full liquids stream can be handled offshore as well,” the company said.
WorleyParsons has already started front-end engineering and design for the gas processing and associated equipment. Final details are expected before project approval before the middle of this year.
Anzon also sees exploration potential in the permits containing the BMG fields.
“Geophysical and geological studies have identified at least four leads which are presently being matured for potential drilling in 2008 or later,” the company said.
