Kerr-McGee starts flow at Bohai Bay wells

Company isn’t thinking small: Facilities can handle daily production of 80,000 barrels of oil, 350,000 gallons of gross liquids

Allen Baker

Petroleum News Contributing Writer

Independent Kerr-McGee Corp. started producing oil from four wells in its Bohai Bay field off China on July 18, the company announced, saying start-up was ahead of schedule.

The company expects to have 10 wells on line by the end of this month in the CFD 11-1 and CFD 11-2 fields on block 04/36. Production of 15,000 to 20,000 barrels per day is expected from the group.

Kerr-McGee is operator, with a 40 percent interest in the development. CNOOC Ltd., the Chinese national oil company, has 51 percent and Sino American Energy Corp., a unit of Ultra Petroleum, has the remaining 9 percent.

By the middle of next year, geologists expect peak production from the two fields of 40,000 to 45,000 bpd. Kerr-McGee China Petroleum Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oklahoma City-based company, is the formal operator.

Kerr-McGee isn’t thinking small on this development. Its floating production, storage and loading facility there can handle 80,000 barrels of oil and 350,000 gallons of gross liquids, with storage for a million barrels of oil for offloading to shuttle tankers. The first phase of the development includes one 48-slot wellhead gathering platform and one 24-slot wellhead platform.

“Consistent with our hub-and-spoke strategy of developing core areas in proven petroleum basins, this infrastructure will allow for the cost-effective development of additional discoveries in this new core area for Kerr-McGee,” said Dave Hager, the Kerr-McGee senior vice president responsible for oil and gas exploration and development.

“With five more discoveries to date, additional identified prospects and interests in approximately 1.7 million gross undeveloped acres, we plan to leverage our expertise to build on our success in Bohai Bay.”