Chevron and partners pre-qualify contractors for Ubon
The US super major Chevron and its partners, the Thailand national oil company PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd (PTTEP), Hess from USA and Mitsui Oil (Mitsui) are currently running the pre-qualification process to select the contractors to be invited to bid (ITB) for the construction of the offshore platform for the Ubon project.
With a production in 2011 of 65,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) and 867 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) of natural gas, Chevron is the largest operating company in Thailand.
Since Chevron and PTTEP have managed to start the first shipments from the previous projects Platong 2 and Greater Bongkok South in the Pailin Basin , they decided to implement the full field development of their license area with the Ubon project located in the Block 12/27 of the Contract 4.
In this Ubon project Chevron and its partners share the working interests in such a way:
- Chevron 35% is the operator
- PTTEP 45%
- Hess 15%
- Mitsui 5%
With a field of non-associated gas and rich of condensate, Ubon appears as one of the largest projects in the Gulf of Thailand.
Chevron opted for central processing platform and FSO
Technip completed the feasibility study to develop Ubon and proposed two scenario in respect with the high contend of NGL in the reservoir.
One scenario combined a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a wellhead platform.
The second scenario tied up a central processing platform with a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
Finally Chevron and its partners PTTEP, Hess and Mitsui preferred the association of the central processing platform with the FSO to develop Ubon and pre-qualify contractors.
This Ubon central processing platform should have a capacity of 115 million cf/d of natural gas and should be able to host 140 people in its living quarter.
The topsides for Ubon are estimated to weight 6,000 tonnes, for a total weight of the platform of 20,000 tonnes.
On this base, the pre-qualification process for the Ubon central processing platform has been pretty large as it enlisted:
- China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) from China
- Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) from South Korea
- Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) from South Korea
- Malaysia Marine Heavy Engineering (MMHE) from Malaysia
- McDermott from USA
- Saipem from Italy
- Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI)
- SMOE from Singapore
In parallel, Chevron and its partners are proceeding to the pre-qualification for the FSO to have a storage capacity of 700,000 barrels of condensate.
Most of the shipyards in Asia are lining up to apply for this FSO.
Chevron to award Ubon FEED contract on next quarter
Since Technip completed the feasibility study for Ubon Full Field Development project, Chevron and its partners released the tender for the front end engineering and design (FEED) contract of the project to:
- EGD Consulting
- Mustang from the Wood Group
- Technip
Chevron and its partners PTTEP, Hess and Mitsui are planning to award the FEED contract for Ubon on third quarter 2013 in order to put the central processing platform and the FSO to come on stream offshore Thailand in 2017.