Awards Honor Project Integration Expertise

The Sakhalin-1 project earned the Excellence in Project Integration Award from the committees and sponsoring societies of the International Petroleum Technology Conference during a special ceremony here Wednesday night.

Each year, the IPTC highlights projects that have demonstrated exceptional teamwork and innovation. These megaprojects, which involve both national and international oil companies and represent investment of more than USD 1 billion equivalent, have shown excellence throughout the entire value chain and exemplified strong teamwork, solid geoscience and engineering skill, outstanding facilities engineering practices, and strong HSE and human resources practices.

This year, 14 nominations were submitted from 12 organizations representing projects in 11 countries. Presentations about the three top projects will be given during a special session Thursday during the conference. The top three winners were:

• First place—Sakhalin Phase 1 Project, Exxon Neftegas
The Sakhalin-1 project is a world-class oil and gas development on the northeast shelf of Sakhalin Island consisting of multiple offshore fields. It is one of the largest foreign direct investments in Russia. The successful completion of the project required the use of innovative technologies, early execution planning, state-of-the-art management processes, and the highest levels of environmental and safety protection. Exxon Neftegas, an ExxonMobil affiliate, operates the multibillion-dollar project on behalf of multinational partners Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development, Rosneft, and ONGC.

Phase 1 of the development focused on the Chayvo field.  The project consists of an offshore drilling and production gravity-based structure, an onshore drilling site using the world’s largest onshore rig, an onshore production facility, a pipeline that transports oil to an export terminal on the Russian mainland, a pipeline that provides gas to the domestic market, and a single-point mooring offloading system where tankers are loaded every 3 to 4 days.

• First runner-up—Kikeh Development Project, Petronas and Murphy Sabah Oil
Kikeh, which is Malaysia’s first deepwater field, began oil production in August 2007, 5 years after its discovery. The field is located in water depth of approximately 1,300 m. The complex deepwater development project marks a major milestone for Petronas and its production-sharing contractor Murphy Oil, the operator of the field.

The Kikeh project was delivered on time and within budget, and involved active participation of local companies at various stages of the project, exposing them to the many aspects of state-of-the-art deepwater technology. This is in line with Petronas’ aspiration to position Malaysia as a center for deepwater development in this region.

• Second runner-up—RasGas Train 5 LNG Project, RasGas Company
The RasGas Train 5 LNG project in Doha, Qatar was completed more than 3 months ahead of schedule and under budget. It integrates many elements of the LNG value chain, including reservoir management, well drilling and completions, onshore and offshore facility design and construction, facility completions and commissioning, and commercial and shipping arrangements. RasGas Train 5 leveraged new technology, existing offshore and onshore infrastructure, and economies of scale to optimize costs and maximize execution efficiency.

JPT Editor John Donnelly is in Kuala Lumpur for the International Petroleum Technology Conference being held 3-5 December 2008.