PDO to launch Rabab follow-up in Harweel Cluster
The national oil company (NOC) Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO) made the final investment decision (FID) on the Rabab Harweel Integrated Project (RHIP) in the South of Oman.
Following BP‘s decision to go ahead with the giant Khazzan and Makarem tight gas project in the center of Oman, the Sultanate Government is gearing up all the projects related to gas production in order to support its economical program on the downstream side requiring more power generation and petrochemical transformations.
In one year only, Oman is targeting to increase its natural gas production by 10% from 103 million cubic meters per day (cm/d) in 2013 to 114 million cm/d in 2014.
This growth will be supported by the exploration of new fields, especially of unconventional gas such as in the Block 6 and Block 61, and the deployment of enhanced oil and gas recovery (EOR) techniques to boost the production from existing fields such as Harweel with the Rabab follow-up, also called RHIP.
Through the operating companies PDO, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) from USA and PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) from Thailand, Oman is operating only 18 fields of non-associated gas.
Without the additional supply of natural gas from Qatar through the Dolphin pipeline system, Oman should be in deficit of natural gas.
Since most of the easily accessible gas is already explored and in production, Oman is now focusing on the unconventional gas and sour gas; that is where the Rabab follow-up project in the Harweel Cluster comes into the picture for Omani Authorities for the Rabab Harweel Integrated Project (RHIP).
Harweel is in production since 2004, and in 2005 the UK-based engineering company Petrofac had completed the first gas central processing facility (CPF) located in Kauther.
Petrofac completed Rabab Harweel expansion FEED
With $1 billion capital expenditure, the Rabab follow-up project is intended to add 5 million cm/d of natural gas.
In place for a decade, Petrofac completed the front end engineering and design (FEED) for the Rabab Harweel Integrated Project.
The main goal of this FEED work was for Petrofac to propose PDO the optimized scheme for the full field development of the Harweel Cluster.
As a result, PDO is planning to build for this Harweel expansion project:
– New gathering facilities
– New oil and gas processing facility
– Gas enrichment/sweetening plant
– New Rabab gas depletion facilities
– Gas injection facilities
After treatment the gas will be re-injected in the Zalzala oil field.
The Rabab follow up project also includes the modifications of the Harweel processing facility.
For this Rabab follow up project, Petrofac is teaming up with the local contractor Galfar.
After this final investment decision (FID), PDO is expecting the Rabab Harweel Integrated Project (RHIP) to start production in the south of Oman by 2019.
