Qatar's Al Shaheen field uncovered

Al Shaheen Uncovered
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Oil & Gas Middle East gets unparalleled access to the team behind the region’s most complex offshore field development. Meet the drilling and production team who sailed into the Guinness Book of records last year with the planet’s longest horizontal well.

Originally appraised in the 1970s and deemed economically unviable due to an extremely challenging environment (its thin payzones and low permeability posing ‘challenges’ to say the least) the Al Shaheen field lay dormant.

International oil companies came, saw the scale and scope of the task, and walked away. That is until Maersk Oil took up that challenge in 1992 in cooperation with Qatar Petroleum (QP).

The 1992 deal was a landmark Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) for the offshore Al Shaheen Block 5, which sits just shy of 80 kilometres off the Qatar coast. Maersk Oil Qatar, in cooperation with QP has since developed the field, exceeding all expectations; with oil production from the field reaching over 300,000 barrels per day, and for a time generating Qatar’s largest hydrocarbon revenue stream.

The field has been developed in three stages, with the most recent Field Development Plan (FDP) signed in 2005, positioning Maersk Oil Qatar at the heart of QP’s oil producing future. The extension project, affectionately abbreviated to 2005 FDP, aims to increase production beyond the 330,000 barrels per day recorded in 2008 and includes an investment of was to increase production with  an investment package of
US$6 billion.

The 2005 FDP is a huge undertaking. The project encompasses the drilling of more than 160 production and water injection wells over a six year period.

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Fifteen new platforms were required, (several currently on barges inching their way towards Qatar’s waters from overseas, international contractors). These platforms are to be twinned with accommodation and production facilities and the whole project interconnected by subsea pipelines.

Significantly, the project also entails the construction, installation and operation of additional facilities, for the gathering and delivery of associated gas to QP (via its own offshore installation nearby) for utilisation at QP’s onshore plants.

The plan also included the completion of a very comprehensive shallow depth 3D seismic survey, as well as enhanced oil recovery techniques in the water flooded reservoirs of the Al Shaheen Field.

Whilst the Capital Expenditure of the project may not be the largest in the world, most global observers would be hard pushed to find a more complex undertaking: Mixing existing Brownfield production with vast new Greenfield developments. Production, drilling and accommodation units have been assembled from around the world, and the integration and hooking up will take place whilst keeping production at full tilt. Throughout this, remains the challenge to ensure personnel safety and limit environmental impact, as per the rigorous boundaries set by QP and Maersk Oil.
 
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Undertaking this mammoth task is a tight-knit team based in Doha. Within minutes of striking up even a casual conversation with anyone in the team it’s apparent that the project has developed an in-house culture of its own.

That’s not to say the team is especially small. It’s just impossible to shake the feeling that each of the hundreds of employees in the Maersk Oil Qatar tower knows each other, and is aware of the role everyone plays to reach a common goal.

There is a diverse group of employees, with Qatari nationals and expatriates from every corner of the globe going about their jobs without any acknowledgement this is exceptional in any way. It’s not uncommon, I’m told, that teams of less than 30 can include 16 different nationalities, but its very much business as usual here in Qatar.

To convey a broader understanding of both the project and the business behind it, Oil & Gas Middle East was granted access throughout the company, to meet the team behind the project.

Overlooking the Gulf’s fastest growing city, department heads, managers and business leadership figures broke down the Al Shaheen Field’s history, development and future vision.

John Cheesebrough, senior project manager, has worked on all three stages of the development plans, and reveals how intricate planning and rigorous scheduling has allowed the project to grow smoothly, and safely. Karsten Jenson, production operations manager explains what keeps the Field producing at staggering utilisation and output levels, and Esbern Hoch, head of geoscience details the geological and petrophysical challenges that make these achievements all the more unique. 
 

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