In Q4 of 2011, production from the deepwater Bijupira & Salema fields was on rapid decline. The Operator started to study opportunities for tying in additional wells, but the existing subsea infrastructure composed of three 4-slot manifold was nearly fully utilized with the 12 existing wells. As the study matured over the next 15 months to the Final Investment Decision, the BJSA Redevelopment Project became a full blown brownfield flagship project for the operator, which included 3 new gas-lifted infill wells plus 1 appraisal/producer well into a new reservoir, replacement of the entire subsea control system, suspension of 3 wells, and chemical injection upgrades for the FPSO to support all the changes.
12 months after FID, the opportunity came to fruition achieving first oil on February 2nd, 2014. The execution of the project required innovation in engineering and procurement strategy. Together with its main subsea hardware supplier, the operator came up with a strategy to reconfigure hydraulics, chemicals, controls, and well slots to temporarily suspend production from 3 wells whilst still monitoring them, and gain the facilities to hook-up the 4 new wells. The field had an antiquated control system and used legacy subsea tree systems. Thus, the re-development of the field also required a replacement of the complete subsea control system with the latest technology, and adapting the company's standard Enhanced Vertical Deepwater Tree (EVDT) system used on the BC–10 field amongst other places, to work in the existing infrastructure. The innovation in procurement strategy came in to meet an aggressive schedule with an available rig. The base platform for the subsea trees (XTs) was a global standard tor the operator, enabling the use of available XTs in other parts of the world, resulting in the importation of 3 base systems from the Gulf of Mexico, and 1 from Malaysia to industrialize locally. The design engineering for the XT modifications were done completely locally and involved changing 3 of the XTs to direct hydraulic control and gas lift capable amongst other changes, whilst adapting the Bijupira control system to handle a 4th new SCM based gas lifted XT.
The strategy to manage stock of XTs globally and accelerate a critical schedule for an asset in a particular part of the world is seen as a practice worth replicating and a representative success of the global subsea equipment standardization initiative between the two companies. The value of equipment standardization did not stop at accelerated procurement. By using the same EVDT base design as the BC–10 field that was also in construction of its phase 2, the team was able to easily adapt existing procedures for installation and share tools, spares, a dock side test facility, a tree and tubing head spool installation vessel, and the great talent onshore and offshore that make the biggest impact.