i-maritime Newsletter

Production starts on Woodside oil vessel - 2011-09-28

Production has started on Woodside Petroleum's Okha floating vessel that is expected to produce 30,000 barrels of oil a day. Woodside said the first take-off from the Woodside-operated Okha floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel 135km north-west of Karratha in Western Australia was scheduled for November. "The hook-up, testing and commissioning of the Okha facility has been completed. The Okha is expected to produce around 30,000 barrels per day when reaching steady state operations towards the end of October 2011," Woodside said in a statement on Monday. The $1.8 billion North West Shelf Oil Redevelopment Project includes the Okha FPSO and associated subsea infrastructure. Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman recently said that while Woodside was perceived as an LNG-focused company, it was still committed to its oil business. Oil represented 23 per cent of its first half production but contributed 36 per cent of revenue for the period amid solid prices, Woodside said. LNG accounted for 37 per cent of the company's output, but contributed 31 per cent of revenue. Proved plus probable reserves from the Cossack Wanaea Lambert and Hermes (CWLH) fields are 88.2 million barrels of oil (Woodside share 29.4 million barrels). The company's 2011 production target remains between 62 and 64 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Participants in the CWLH joint venture are: operator Woodside (33.33 per cent); BHP Billiton (16.67 per cent); BP (16.67 per cent); Chevron (16.67 per cent); and Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) (16.67 per cent). Woodside shares had dropped $1.57 cents, or five per cent, to close at $29.80, as most commodity stocks slumped.
Source: Shipping Industry News