BG and CB&I review all options for Jackdaw design
Based in Reading, east of London, the BG Group Ltd (BG) and its partners, Maersk from Denmark, GDF-Suez from France, OMV from Austria, ConocoPhillips from USA and JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration (JX Nippon) from Japan, are currently reviewing all the options with the support of the engineering company CB&I to develop the gas and condensate high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) Jackdaw field in the UK Central North Sea.
As a high pressure and high temperature offshore gas and condensate field, Jackdaw may also benefit from the new tax break regulation proposed by UK Government to encourage oil and gas fields exploration and production despite all the challenges and costs related to these extreme operating conditions.
Together with Maersk Culzean, BG Jackdaw may be the next project to potentially receive up to a fifth of the project capital expenditure with this new tax program.
With already working interests in Elgin Franklin operated by Total, BG has acquired expertise in high pressure and high temperature fields to develop Jackdaw as operator.
Discovered in 2006, Jackdaw lies across three blocks 30/2a, 30/2d and 30/3a where BG owns 44.1%, 35% and 30.5% working interests respectively while the remaining share are split between Maersk, OMV, ConocoPhillips and JX Nippon.
Since its discovery, Jackdaw appraisal program contributed to review its recoverable reserves up to 200 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of gas and condensates with still upsides to be evaluated.
Anyway BG left Jackdaw untapped as too complex and not profitable compared with other opportunities.
In the meantime Aker Solutions completed the pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED).
In April 2014, CB&I was awarded the front end engineering and design (FEED) contract with the option to convert this FEED, if successful, into detailed design contract.
CB&I success in this FEED competition relies on its experience in the Nexen-operated Buzzard project.
BG to benchmark Nexen Buzzard to scale up Jackdaw
Based on three-plus-one platforms concept, BG and its partners see in Buzzard a concept that could fit perfectly to develop Jackdaw.
In Buzzard case, Nexen proceeded in two steps.
In the phase-1, Nexen built three bridge-linked units including:
– Wellheads platform
– Utilities and living quarter platform
In the phase-2, Nexen added a fourth unit:
– Production sweetening platform
From this experience and in respect with additional reserves that BG, Maersk, and GDF-Suez could bring in, the question for BG is about phasing Jackdaw project as Buzzard in a scenario three-plus-one platform or to take a leap in going straight to a four platforms design.
The answer to this question relies also partly on the way the new tax break regulation should benefit or not to all the partners involved in Jackdaw.
At the stage of on going costs estimates and tax calculations, BG and its partners Maersk, GDF-Suez, ConocoPhillips and JX Nippon, are planning to make the final investment decision (FID) on mid 2015 for the first production to come on stream in 2019.
