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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Cave who wrote (38313)	2/25/1999 12:59:00 PM
From: Mike from La.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

This is the way future deepwater fields are going to be handled. Conoco's First Banff Oil Shipment in Route to Refinery ABERDEEN, Scotland, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The first commercial shipment of crude oil to be produced from the Banff field in the U.K. sector of the North Sea, which is operated by Conoco (NYSE:COC), has begun its journey ashore for refining into petroleum products. The shuttle tanker Nordic Svenita, carrying 500,000 barrels (67,000 tons) of Banff crude left the field bound for Donges in France. Her sister ship, Wilma Yukon, replaced her in the field. Conoco's Banff field began production on Jan. 30, 1999. Located 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Aberdeen, Banff currently is producing at a rate of about 30,000 barrels per day through the floating production, storage and offtake (FPSO) vessel Ramform Banff. With a planned peak daily production rate of 60,000 barrels of oil and 40 million standard cubic feet of gas, field life is expected to be about eight years. The Banff development includes a provision to handle potential additional production from adjacent areas. Co-venturers in the Banff field are: Conoco (U.K.) Limited (operator) with 31.70 percent interest, Ranger Oil (U.K.) Limited with 26.20 percent, Enterprise Oil Exploration Limited with 27.90 percent, British-Borneo Oil & Gas plc with 12.40 percent, and Petrobras North Sea Limited with 1.80 percent. Conoco is responsible for reservoir management and the drilling program. Field facilities are owned and operated by PGS Floating Production U.K. Ltd. under a life-of-field production services agreement (PSA). The agreement covers the provision of personnel, maintenance and logistical support, and requires the abandonment of the FPSO system on completion of the contract. Another PGS company, Atlantic Floating Production, is responsible for the day- to-day operations of the facilities. At the heart of the FPSO system is the Ramform Banff, a purpose-built vessel of a type not used previously for oil and gas production. The wedge- shaped hull and wide stern of the ramform design enables it to carry large deck loads without compromising stability or safety. It also provides capacity to reconfigure or add processing packages for incremental or third- party oil production. The Ramform Banff has storage capacity for 120,000 barrels of crude oil, protected by a double hull. Oil from Banff, which is located in U.K. blocks 29/2a and 22/27a, is produced through two subsea wells tied back to a single subsea manifold that is connected, in turn, to the Ramform Banff by a system of flowlines and dynamic risers. The manifold, which can accommodate additional wells if necessary, lies 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) from the vessel between the production wells to the north and two water injection wells to the south. Oil is loaded from the FPSO through a 12-inch pipeline to a tanker moored at a single anchor loading system (SAL), 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) away. Initially, two double-hulled tankers, the Wilma Yukon and the Nordic Svenita, will transport the oil, reducing to one later in field life when production rates decline. Each shuttle tanker has dynamic positioning systems, allowing it to remain on station in severe weather. Mike