LONDON (Alliance News) - BP PLC on Sunday said it and Oman Oil have signed a heads of agreement with the Government of the Sultanate of Oman committing to amend the Oman Block 61 exploration and production sharing agreement or EPSA, extending the licence area of the block and enabling a further development of the major Khazzan tight gas field.
BP is the operator of Block 61 with a 60% interest and Oman Oil holds the other 40%.
Under the amended EPSA, the extension will add a further over 1000 square kilometres to the south and west of the original block. The extension will allow a second phase of development, accessing additional resources in the area that have been identified by drilling activity within the original block.
Development of this additional resource is subject to final approval of the Government of Oman and of BP; both expected in 2017.
The Khazzan reservoirs in Block 61 represent one of the Middle East's largest unconventional tight gas accumulations, with the potential to be a major new source of gas supply for Oman over many decades. Production from Khazzan will make a significant contribution to ensuring continuing stable and long-term domestic supplies of gas for Oman. Combined plateau production from Phases 1 and 2 is expected to total approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day (bcf/d), equivalent to around 40% of Oman's current total domestic gas production.
The Phase 1 project, sanctioned in December 2013, remains on schedule to deliver first gas in late 2017. Subject to completion of the agreements and final sanction, the new Khazzan Phase 2 project will come on stream from 2020.
The two phases are expected to produce 1.5 bcf/d through development of 10.5 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas resources. This will involve construction of a three-train central processing facility with associated gathering and export systems and drilling around 325 wells over a 15 year period. Improved reservoir performance, drilling efficiencies and other improvements have reduced the well count by around 100 wells from the original Phase 1 plan.
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