Infield Systems profiles the top five most capital intensive offshore oil and gas projects currently under development, Infield Systems expects these to comprise the Ichthys, Hebron, Aasta Hansteen, Prelude and Mariner fields.
Ichthys (WA-285-P)
Located in the Browse Basin, offshore Western Australia and targeting 12.8Tcf of natural gas and 527 million barrels of condensate, in waters just 230m deep, the Ichthys field is deemed a giant field. Operator Inpex and its partners are currently aiming for a 2016 start-up, with gas to be exported via an 889km subsea pipeline to onshore processing facilities in the Northern Territory, while condensate from the field will be pumped to the FPSO.
Infield Systems’ forecasts suggest that expenditure, in 2015, on the Ichthys field is likely to be 39.5% greater than any other global fields currently under construction. With 92.8% being invested in the floating platform facility and the remainder directed towards the SPM element of the project.
Like most operators, Inpex is looking to cut the escalating costs of its projects and has therefore recently farmed out 1.2% of its stake to Kansai Electric Power, following a similar deal in June to sell 2.625% to CPC. Once finalised, Inpex will hold 62.245% operatorship, alongside Total (30%), Tokyo Gas (1.575%), Osaka Gas (1.2%), Chubu Electric Power (0.735%) and Toho Gas (0.42%).
Hebron
ExxonMobil’s Hebron oil field in Canada will require the highest level of fixed platform expenditure in 2015. The field will be developed using a gravity-based structure, designed to provide production and accommodation facilities. Infield Systems projects that 40.6% of ExxonMobil’s Capex for projects currently under construction in 2015 is likely to be directed towards Hebron, revealing the scale of the project.
The Hebron oil field is situated 350km offshore Newfoundland in water depths of 93m. The field is estimated to produce 705Mmbbl and Infield Systems forecasts first oil by mid-2017. ExxonMobil owns a 36.3% stake in partnership with Chevron (26.6%), Suncor Energy (22.7%), Statoil (9.7%) and Nalcor (4.9%).
Three consortia are currently bidding to secure a major topsides integration contract for Hebron’s gravity-based structure. Amec has teamed up with Black & McDonald, Wood Group PSN with GJ Cahill and Kentz has partnered with Kiewit and Kvaerner, in order to meet the province’s stringent local content requirements.
Aasta Hansteen
Due on stream in 2017, Aasta Hansteen is the deepest field development on the Norwegian continental shelf and will use the world’s largest Spar platform to be installed at a water depth of 1,274m. The Aasta Hansteen discovery is located 295km off the coast of Norway and contains an estimated 1.35Tcf reserves.
The project is currently the most expensive in Europe, due to the relatively high cost of the platform and associated infrastructure. Consequently, Statoil recently sold part of its stake to Wintershall in order to help reduce risk and cost. Statoil remain the operator of Aasta Hansteen with a 51% stake. Wintershall hold a 24% stake, with other partners including OMV (15%) and ConocoPhillips (10%).
Infield Systems remains cautious in its profitability projections for the project, after the recent shelving of the Zidane, Linnorm and Kristin gas export projects. Profitability will be dependent on new discoveries.
Prelude (WA-371-P)
The Prelude natural gas field was discovered by Shell in 2007 and contains 3Tcf. It is located in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia in 200m water depths. The field is operated by Shell with a 67.5% stake, along with Inpex (17.5%), KOGAS (10%) and OPIC (5%).
The relatively small size of the field and the remote location led Shell to choose to invest in one of the world’s first FLNG facilities. The Prelude FLNG facility is being built at SHI’s Geoje Island shipyard in South Korea and will be 488m long, 74m wide, weighing more than 600,000 tonnes and is expected to produce 3.6mtpa of LNG per annum to meet growing demand in Asia.
As FLNG technology is still in its infancy, the project is forecast to be extremely capital intensive.
Mariner
The Mariner heavy oil field is located in the northern section of the UK North Sea and lies in water depths of 110m. Statoil operates the field with a 65% interest. Other partners include Nippon Oil (28.9%) and Dyas (6%).
Due to the heavy oil in the field, Statoil chose to develop it using a PDQ platform based on a steel jacket, tied-back to an FSU. Infield Systems expects production from Mariner to start in 2017. The piled platform is likely to demand a 95.5% share of this project’s Capex in 2015; almost 50% of which will relate to its installation, while the remainder will be invested in the procurement and construction of the fixed platform. A mere 4.5% of Capex is directed towards the floating storage unit, with capital expenditure on this element of the project expected to extend to 2017.