ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Malaysia Inc. (EMEPMI) announced the startup of the Tapis enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, off the coast of Terengganu, Malaysia, in the South China Sea.
Operations began with water-alternating-gas injection from the recently installed Tapis R central processing platform into targeted wells on the existing Tapis A platform.
The Tapis EOR project is one of the largest offshore EOR projects in southeast Asia, and is Malaysia's first large-scale EOR project. It incorporates an immiscible water-alternating-gas process to recover remaining oil reserves from the Tapis field, and will increase the overall field recovery, ExxonMobil said Friday. The project is designed to improve the production from approximately 5000 bo/d to a maximum of 25,000-35,000 bo/d by 2017. Tapis produced crude (42.7 API gravity, 0.04% sulfur) is loaded at Terengganu Crude Oil Terminal, Kerteh, Malaysia.
ExxonMobil partners with Petronas Carigali in the project, each holding 50% participating interest. The Tapis EOR project is a RM8 billion (US$2.6 billion) investment by ExxonMobil and Petronas.
The Tapis field was discovered in 1969 and began production in 1978. It has "so far yielded over 400 MMbbl of crude oil with a maximum production of 90,000 bo/d achieved in the early days of the field’s production,” according to EMEPMI chairman and former president J Hunter Farris last year at the Tapis-R topsides onshore fabrication celebration event in Johor, Malaysia.
EMEPMI's current president See Kok Yew, appointed 15 February 2014, said: "This is a historic milestone for Malaysia as it is our country's first large-scale, full-field offshore implementation of water-alternating-gas injection techniques to improve oil recovery, and in parallel, work is being done to rejuvenate existing facilities to extend the life of the Tapis field."
Facilities
Fabrication work for the Tapis EOR project began in November 2011. The facilities were designed and built in Malaysia by local contractors.
The main component of the project is the Tapis R central processing platform comprised of a large integrated deck structure with living quarters for 145 personnel, and equipped with 390 MCF/d gas compression and 270,000 b/d water injection facilities, production-processing equipment, and utilities systems.
Tapis R is the first platform installed by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia using the floatover method for its topsides. The combined topsides and jacket, which were installed in May 2014, weigh about 23,500 tonnes, making it the heaviest platform built in Malaysia by the company.
Other new facilities installed as part of the Tapis EOR project include the Tapis Q riser platform and access bridges linking Tapis Q with Tapis R and the existing Tapis B platform. In addition, a 50km network of in-field pipelines and undersea cables were installed to enable gas and water injection and full well stream production from the existing Tapis platforms, and to export production from Tapis R.
So far, the Tapis EOR project has recorded roughly 24 million total work hours through the various phases without any lost-time injuries despite the scale and complexity of the project.
Related coverage:
Aqualis wins Asian construction contracts, 22 May 2014
Exxon E&P Malaysia completes topside install on Tapis, 2 May 2014
SE Asia comes to LAGCOE, 1 November 2013
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