Malaysian RNZ wins FEED contract on Bardegg-2
The national oil company (NOC) Petronas selected the local engineering services provider RNZ Integrated (RNZ) to perform the front end engineering and design (FEED) of the Baram Delta Gas Gathering phase two (Bardegg-2) project on the Baronia field offshore Miri in the Sarawak province in Malaysia.
In this second phase of the Baram Delta Gas Gathering project, Petronas is willing to collect gas to boost the crude oil production in the neighboring fields as part of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) program and to feed the Bintulu liquefield natural gas (LNG) facility.
Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world producing and consuming natural gas in such quantities that it may turn at any time from its current net exporter position to net importer and vice versa later on.
Not only the economical growth is pushing the natural gas consumption, but Malaysia is also aiming at increasing the local downstream activities in the petrochemical sector with projects such as RAPID in order to convert the export of crude oil and natural gas into high added value hydrocarbon products.
In this context, Petronas is exploring all the opportunities to monetize the associated gas which was flared and the non-associated gas that can help the crude oil production.
Teaming up with the international oil company (IOC) Shell, Petronas prepared the Baram Delta Operations EOR (BDO EOR) program to gather all sources of natural gas and carbon dioxide to boost maturing crude oil fields.
In that perspective, Petronas and Shell have listed six fields, Baram, Baronia, Betty, Bokor, Tukau and West Lutong to benefit from this BDO EOR program.
These fields are in production for 30 years and after natural depletion Petronas and Shell have reached a modest 30% recovery rate that opens high expectations on the performances of the Baram Delta Operations EOR program.
These fields plus Bakau, Fairley and Siwa are estimated to contain still 4 billion barrels of in-place reserves of oil.
With the implementation of the Baram Delta Operations EOR program, Petronas and Shell expect to increase their recovery rate on these fields to 45%.
As part of this BDO EOR program, Petronas is moving on the Bardegg-2 and the Tukau Timur projects.
For the Bardegg-2 project, Petronas selected the local engineering company RNZ to perform the FEED work.
Petronas Tukau Timur FEED to be awarded soon
Headquartered in Kuala lumpur, RNZ has also a design office in Miri, in front of the project, in the Sarawak province.
Established in 1994, RNZ is one of the six engineering companies licensed by Petronas to provide engineering services for offshore projects.
In 2012, RNZ and Petrofac signed a partnering agreement to go global in the pursuit of oil and gas projects.
The FEED contract awarded by Petronas to RNZ includes also some detail design work.
The Baram Delta Gas Gathering phase 2 project should include a:
- Eight legs central processing platform (CPP)
- 16-slot wellhead structure
The Bardegg-2 central processing platform should weight more than 10,000 tonnes as to host a:
- Gas processing
- Gas compression station
- Condensate stabilization unit
- Gas injection unit
- Water injection unit
- Water treatment facilities.
For now the FEED contract awarded to RNZ is limited to the Bardegg-2 project while the FEED contract for Tukau Timur should be decided on mid 2013.
In Tukau Timur, RNZ is again in competition with Aker Solutions from Norway and MMC Oil & Gas Engineering from Malaysia.
The Tukau Timur project should include two wellhead platforms of nine and six slots facility respectively to be tied-in Bardegg-2 central processing platform.
In the Tukau Timur project Petronas will experienced for the first time high pressure, high temperature gas field.
This challenge may provide some competitive advantage to Aker Solutions which is used to deploy the corresponding technologies in the North Sea.
In awarding the second phase of Baram Delta Gas Gathering (Bardegg-2) project to RNZ, Petronas ans Shell expect to start the Baram Delta Operation EOR program with first gas injection in 2017.
