ConocoPhillips Invites Caldita-Barossa Bids
Friday 12 August 2016
US independent ConocoPhillips has moved into the next development phase of its multi-billion- dollar Caldita-Barossa gas project off northern Australia, which will be exploited via a large floating production, storage and offloading vessel.
Invitations to tender for pre-front-end engineering and design contracts related to the gas FPSO and the subsea components have been issued to a select group of contractors.
Sources said the contractors are believed to be those that have existing master service agreements with ConocoPhillips.
For the FPSO, engineering majors such as Fluor, KBR and WorleyParsons are likely recipients of invitations to tender, and there could be others.
For the subsea production system, FMC Technologies holds a master services agreement with ConocoPhillips but other players could also be in the frame.
As for the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines contract, specialists in this field include McDermott, Subsea 7 and Technip. Sources said the FPSO scope is to be managed out of Houston, while the subsea scope will be dealt with in Perth.
Bids for the pre-FEED work are due in the coming month, with awards due soon after.
After the pre-FEED work is completed, ConocoPhillips will invite bids for the FEED contract, possibly in the first half of 2017.
For the FEED prize, two or three groups comprising engineering majors and shipyards are likely to be called upon to compete.
The current plan is for the FPSO to be a newbuild vessel to be owned by ConocoPhillips and with a large topsides weighing up to 40,000 tonnes.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the VLCC-size vessel could be worth in excess of US$1 billion, said sources.
Other elements of the project include the subsea production system and the umbilicals, risers and flowlines. In addition, a gas export pipeline of about 270 kilometres will run to the Darwin liquefied natural gas plant, also operated by ConocoPhillips.
The idea is that volumes from Caldita-Barossa will provide backfill to Darwin LNG in about 2022 or 2023, when the Bayu-Undan field runs down.
ConocoPhillips has been tight-lipped about the project and has not yet made any regulatory filings that would publicise any project specifics. A spokesman stated “A range of pre-FEED engineering is required for the Barossa project before it can progress to FEED. At this stage, ConocoPhillips is unable to comment in any detail, primarily due to commercial confidentiality, but expects to be in a position to share more information in coming months.”
The US giant has spent at least one year working on the dynamics of the field development, engaging with a host of consulting and engineering firms to look further into surface and subsea development options.
The FPSO concept is preferred to a fixed processing platform, in part because of the water depths at Caldita-Barossa of between 200 metres and 320 metres.
Reserves have not been publicised for Caldita-Barossa, although joint venture partner Santos, which has a 25% stake, earlier this year booked 46 million barrels of oil equivalent to its best-estimate contingent resources “following the integration of successful appraisal drilling results in the Barossa field”.
ConocoPhillips has said previously that the presence of “significant accumulations of natural gas” has already been confirmed in the Caldita-Barossa permits.
The field owners are operator ConocoPhillips and SK Energy each on 37.5% and Santos on 25%.
The Barossa field was discovered in 2007. It also contains condensate and, like many of the gas fields in the Bonaparte basin, has a high carbon dioxide content, in this case up to 16%.
The Caldita-1 discovery well was drilled in 2005, followed by the Caldita-2 well in 2007, and lies in Block NT/RL6.