PDO calls for bids for Phase Two of SRDC project
Call comes as the Omani gas field reaches maturity, resulting in a decline in reservoir pressure
A number of local and international engineering construction firms have submitted bids for Phase Two of Petroleum Development Oman’s (PDO) Saih Rawl Depletion Compression project, it was announced on Saturday.
The project is critical to ensuring that gas exports to major consumers are maintained, at the prescribed pressure and in the requisite volumes, a report in the Oman Daily Observer said. The call to submit bids for the project comes a month after the first phase of the $550m project was inaugurated.
Presently the largest gas field in the country, the Saih Rawl project has been in operation since 1991, catering to the majority of gas demand in the north of the Sultanate. Volumes from the plant are processed at PDO’s massive Central Processing Plant located near the field.
Treated gas from the CPP is supplied to the LNG trains at Qalhat for export, as well as to the Government Gas System, which in turn feeds power plants and industrial consumers mainly in the North of Oman. Other off-takers of these treated volumes include the Oman-India Fertiliser plant at Sur, the South Oman Gas Line and PDO itself for its internal power generation requirements.
However, as the Saih Rawl field gradually reaches maturity, there has been a decline in reservoir pressure, leading to PDO having to adopt a technique known as depletion compression. This enables sustained production and increases ultimate recovery from the field, by reducing back pressure at the well-head and boosting the inlet pressure from 35 bar to 96 bar for exports.
Phase One of the Saih Rawl Depletion Compression Project has the capacity to hand 48m m3 of gas per day (MMSCMD). A new power station with a total capacity of 120MW has also been built as part of the package, so as to cater to increased power demand.
Phase Two of the project is scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2015 so as to enable the reduction of CPP inlet pressure from 35 to 13 bar. The Phase Two package includes the construction of four parallel compression trains with a total capacity of 30 MMSCMD of gas.
Furthermore, the selected contractor will also install 76MW of gas compression capacity, and carry out some modifications to the condensate handling system in the Central Processing Plant, the Omani newspaper reported.
A contract is set to be awarded in the coming months, the paper said, adding that a pair of inlet separators will be installed to handle the gas streams from Saih Rawl South, Saih Rawl Oil gas line and the Barik and Mabrouk fields.
These inlet separators will be designed for a total gas handling capacity of 18MMSCMD of gas, which will be routed to existing compression trains that were built as the first part of the depletion compression project.
