Amoco Orient Petroleum Company, in partnership with China Offshore Oil Nanhai East Corporation and Kerr- McGee China Petroleum Ltd. is installing the first field-wide, subsea electric submersible pump system in the Liuhua Field. Located in the South China Sea, the Liuhua project uses many existing stand-alone technologies, but has created a unique situation by combining them in the development of one field.
As with other subprojects within the overall Liuhua development, Amoco and partners brought in LasalIe Engineering to provide expertise in completions and especially ESP applications, Selection of the completion equipment suppliers and the specific equipment was a joint decision by the partners and Lasalle Engineering.
The equipment selection criteria were driven by the concept of 'fit for purpose,' meaning: 'select the most appropriate supplier and equipment to fit the specific Liuhua Field requirements.' Supplier and equipment selections were based on a matrix of criteria, including:
Information case histories of the recommended equipment
Work history in China
The company's safety philosophy
QA plan
Training philosophy
Failure analysis philosophy
costs
Other factor
Lasalle's compensation for the completion equipment is based on an incentive scheme that results in Lasalle sharing significant risk. Essentially, if the equipment is available for production, a daily rate is paid. If it is not available, then payments stop. The actual daily rate value diminishes with every new installation, thereby requiring increasingly longer operating-run lives to recover their investments.
This paper describes some of the unique completion equipment requirements, the equipment selection methodology, and the completion equipment incentive contract scheme used for the Liuhua Field.
The Liuhua Field is located in the South China Sea approximately 120 miles (200 km) southeast of Hong Kong (Fig. 1). The field is located in approximately 1,020 ft (310 m) of water. Liuhua was discovered in 1987, and appraisal and delineation drilling occurred through 1989. Amoco Orient Petroleum Company, and partner China Offshore Oil Nanhai East Corporation (CONHE) received approval for the development of the Liuhua Field in 1993 (Refs. 1 and 2). The field development plans include 20 subsea horizontal wells, all incoporating ESPS for artificial lift. As shown in Fig. 2, the offshore facilities include a floating production system (FPS) described in OTC 8187 (Ref. 3), a subsea production system described in OTC 8175 (Ref. 4), and a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel described in OTC 8188 (Ref. 5). The FPS is a semi-submersible drilling unit that has been retrofitted to house the subsea facility control system and provide the power generation for the wells. The FPSO is a 143,000 dwt tanker that has been retrofitted to include the field's process equipment, oil storage, and offloading.
