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Phillips completes Bohai Bay appraisal program First production from field off China expected in late 2001; company expects to recover 500 million barrels from field’s central crest area, 200 to 300 million barrels from flank areas Petroleum News Alaska
Phillips China Inc., a unit of Phillips Petroleum Co., said March 30 that it has completed the appraisal drilling program on the Peng Lai 19-3 discovery in Block 11/05 of China’s Bohai Bay. The company said it is proceeding with plans to develop this significant discovery and expects first production in late 2001.
“Based on recovery factors from similar fields in the area, we believe we should be able to recover around 500 million barrels from the field’s central crest area, where we have encountered a lighter, easier-to-produce crude than is normally found in Bohai Bay,” said Kirby Hedrick, executive vice president of upstream. “Our plans are to focus our initial development efforts on this area and later develop the more typical Bohai Bay crudes on the flank areas to maintain production rates over time. The flank areas could potentially add another 200 to 300 million barrels to our ultimate recovery over the expected 30-year life of the field.”
Multi-phase development planned A multiple phase development is planned. Phase I will utilize one wellhead platform and a floating production, storage and offloading facility, with daily gross production rates expected to reach 35,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil. First production from Phase I is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2001.
Phase II will include multiple wellhead platforms, central processing facilities and a pipeline or floating storage and offloading facility. First production from Phase II is targeted for the first quarter of 2004, building to a plateau rate of 100,000 to 150,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
Together, these phases are expected to develop approximately 500 million barrels of recoverable reserves. The balance of the expected ultimate recovery potential would be developed by incorporating flank areas and using enhanced recovery methods.
Phillips’ large acreage position in Block 11/05 provides the company with significant additional exploration opportunities in an underexplored area of a prolific oil province. “Based on encouraging results in PL 19-3, we have developed an exploration program on other unexplored features in this block, with a minimum of four wells planned in 2000,” said Hedrick. “Further, with three discoveries and several large additional prospects identified, we’re very optimistic about the potential of the block.”
Commercialization of the previous discoveries on the block, PL 14-3 and Bozhong 36-2, is being evaluated in light of the PL 19-3 development.
Phillips acquired the right to explore Block 11/05 in 1994 when a petroleum contract was signed with China National Offshore Oil Corp. Phillips has a 100 percent interest in the 2.3 million-acre block. China National Offshore has the right to participate with up to a 51 percent interest in any development in the block.
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