Ramboll in Al Shaheen Pre-FEED Deal
Thursday 18 May 2017
Total and Qatar Petroleum (QP) are mulling the addition of multiple new platforms at the giant Al Shaheen oilfield off Qatar after handing a UK company a study contract.
Ramboll has been awarded the pre-front-end engineering and design deal for three new wellhead platforms for the field, where French supermajor Total will soon take over part-operatorship from Denmark’s Maersk Oil.
Field operator North Oil Company (NOC), a joint venture between Total and state player QP, handed Ramboll the deal, the contractor said on Thursday.
Ramboll had previously carried out detailed brownfield design work at Al Shaheen.
Total is replacing Maersk as QP’s partner in July following a long run at the field for the Copenhagen-based player.
When Total was revealed as Maersk’s successor last year, the new partners pledged $2 billion more of fresh investment in the field in the first five years of operatorship.
Stephane Michel, president of Middle East & North Africa at Total Exploration & Production, stated last year, after it secured the 30% stake, that the partners were considering a new platform. The joint venture will also need to carry out further drilling at the field.
The new partners in December signed up for a pair of floating storage and offloading units at the field, to begin once the pair’s joint venture stake over operatorship. NOC handed the letter of award to a joint venture between Euronav and International Seaways for the FOS Africa and FSO Asia.
The two units are already working on the field for current operator Maersk Oil, along with Qatar Petroleum. The five-year deals are expected to generate combined revenue of $360 million over the course of the contracts.
The field, which sits 80 kilometres north of the capital Doha, currently produces about 300,000 barrels per day, with the joint venture’s initial objective to maintain plateau production. The existing Al Shaheen development consists of 30 platforms and 300 wells, and production from the field represents about half of Qatar’s oil production.