One field is in South China Sea with a water depth of about 330m. It was first developed with FPSO, subsea wells and the first electrical subsea pump in the industry, taking subsea processing a giant step forward. After producing for 12 years, it became China’s first abandoned offshore field.
Recently, the field had its 1st oil for the second time, when owner re-developed the same field using a different concept with a 19 km subsea tieback and subsea boosting technology. In combination with its host of offshore platform, it enabled the economic developments of area with marginal fields.
The presentation starts with the development challenge of this field, and provides a holistic review of different development options, including a standalone development vs a tieback development. It was pioneering act for it to adopt the first subsea boosting system, it has since advanced significantly over the last two decades. In the past, the field was developed with 5 subsea pumps on each subsea well.
As a result of significant technological advances and maturation, it is today developed with a single pump processing all the flows. The comparison of development concepts, allows a rare opportunity to assess the impact of the technology advancement over time, the values brought by technology are shown as technical, operational, economical and environmental impacts.
The re-development with a long tieback and subsea boosting is a great example that many marginal fields and long tieback fields can be enabled, with a lower carbon footprint solution.