1. Introduction

This field development example shows the initial topics that an oil company will consider before reaching an investment decision for developing and oil or gas field.

Oil and gas field development in Vietman

We assume that an oil company named ELEN is investigating whether or not to develop an offshore gas field in Vietnam.

We go through the following:

  • Assessing the volume of oil and gas in the reservoir.
  • Choosing a platform type (FPSO, Jacket, TLP, Semi).
  • Choosing how to transfer the gas to the shore (built a new pipeline or use an existing pipeline).
  • Economic evaluation of top 3 field development options.
  • Stakeholder assessment and evaluation.
  • Consideration of construction. operation and decommissioning
  • Project Economics

1.1. The situation

During the past decade, the energy demand in Vietnam has been rising at rate of 12% per year as a result of the rapid econimic growth. A big challenge for Vietnam is to balance the energy demand in order to sustain the current growth rates. To this end, PetroVietnam (PVN), the national oil company of Vietnam, seeks to recover the deepwater offshore reserves of Vietnam.

Petrovietnam Oil and Gas state company of Vietnam
Petrovietnam is the state Oil&Gas company of Vietnam

Petro Vietnam (PVN) has asked ELEN (fictional name for an international oil company), to participate in the development of Block 21 in the Nam Con Son basin. In this document, we present a plan for developing the Bí ẩN Phía Nam Field, which is located within Block 21.

Offshore oil and gas blocks of Vietnam
Vietnam Offshore Oil and Gas blocks

  

Nam Con Son basin in Offshore Vietnam
Offshore location of Nam Con Son basin in Vietnam

1.2. Contents

This report starts with an overview of the objectives, the risks and the opportunities of the proposed Offshore Field Development. Then, it presents the main stakeholders and sets the HSSE framework. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the recoverable hydrocarbons and considers a potential depletion strategy. In chapter 4, various development concepts were consider and assessed.The final field development plan consists of a sub-sea system, an FPSO and a new gas pipeline with a daily gas production of 800 mmscf/d.

  1. Summary
  2. Project Information
  3. Reservoir and depletion strategy
  4. Concept Selection
  5. Field development plan
  6. Conclusions
  7. Appendices

1.3. List of Abbreviations

  • bbl    Barrels
  • BTU    British Thermal Unit
  • B&C    Bloom & Company
  • CAPEX     Capital Expenditure
  • CIIP     Condensate Initially In Place
  • EEZ    Exclusive economical zone
  • DCA    Drilling Centre A
  • DCB    Drilling Centre B
  • EVN    Vietnam Electricity Authority
  • FDTG     First Day To Gas
  • FPSO     Offloading unit
  • GBS     Floating, Production, Storage and Gravity Base Structure
  • GIIP     Gas Initially In Place
  • GTL    Gas To Liquid
  • HSSE     Health, Safety, Sustainability, Environment
  • HVAC    Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning
  • IMR    Inspection, Maintenance and Repair
  • IRR     Internal Rate of Return
  • LAT     Lowest Astronomical Tide
  • LNG     Liquefied Natural Gas
  • LPG    Liquefied Petroleum Gas
  • L.Q.    Living Quarters
  • MODU    Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit
  • MRI    Maintenance Repair and Inspection
  • NGO    Non‐Governmental Organization
  • NPV    Net Present Value
  • OPEX    Operational Expenditure
  • ppm     parts per million
  • psi     Pounds per square inch
  • PVT    Pressure, Volume and Temperature
  • PVN    PetroVietnam
  • ROV    Remotely Operated Vehicle
  • scf     Standard cubic feet
  • TECOP     Technical, Economical, Commercial, Organizational, Political
  • TLP     Tension Leg Platform
  • VIR     Value to Investment Ratio