Chevron to tender Ubon Offshore Platform and FPU
The California-based company Chevron and its partners, PTTEP from Thailand, Hess from USA and Mitsui Oil (Mitsui) from Japan are preparing the calls for tender for the main engineering, production and construction (EPC) contracts to be awarded for the development of the offshore Ubon project in Thailand.
This Ubon project results from Chevron and PTTEP decision to proceed to the full field development of the Block 12/27 in the Pailin Basin of the Gulf of Thailand.
As the largest operating company in Thailand, Chevron produced in 2011 65,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil and condensate and 867 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) of natural gas.
Covered by the Contract 4 concession, the interests in the Block 12/27 are shared between:
– PTT Exploration and Production Public Company (Ltd) (PTTEP) 45%
– Chevron 35% is the operator
– Hess 15%
– Mitsui 5%
Since all the contractors identified Ubon as one of the largest projects in Gulf of Thailand, the qualification process took some time from the first extensive list of pre-qualified companies down to the current short list.
In addition, this qualification process came after some uncertainty on the final concept of the project causing some delay to the front end engineering and design (FEED).
During the feasibility study, Chevron and its partners investigated with Technip two different options:
1) Combine a floating, production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a wellhead platform
2) Tie-up a central processing platform with a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit
Finally Chevron and its partners PTTEP, Hess and Mitsui opted for the second scenario cheaper and easier to implement through a large offer of shipyards with corresponding capabilities.
In that respect Ubon central processing platform is designed for 115 million cf/d of natural gas capacity and to host 140 workers in the living quarter.
From a total weight of 20,000 tonnes, the topsides of this Ubon central processing platform represent approximately 6,000 tonnes.
During the FEED stage, the FSO has been sized for a storage capacity of 700,000 barrels of natural gas liquids (NGL).
Chevron and PTTEP made two short lists for Ubon
Chevron and its partners, PTTEP, Hess and Mitsui qualified the contractors specifically for each EPC package.
For the Ubon central processing platform, five contractors remain in competition:
– Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME)
– Malaysia Marine Heavy Industries (MMHE)
– Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI)
– SMOE
For the FSO, the list of the qualified contractors came down even shorter , nailed down to:
– Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME)
– Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI)
– Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI)
Chevron and its partners are intended to call for tenders theses EPC contracts on the first quarter of this year so that the Ubon central processing platform and FSO could be awarded on second half 2014.
In these conditions, Chevron, PTTEP, Hess and Mitsui are targeting to turn Ubon full field development into commercial operations in 2018.
