Pioneer CX-15 set for debut

Novel buoyant tower drilling and production unit now en route to Peru from Wison's yard in China and drifting scheduled for October

Nantong, China

THE world's first buoyant tower drilling and production unit, known as the CX-15 platform, is set for its drilling debut in mid-October.

The unit, built by China's privately, owned offshore yard Wison Offshore & Marine, is now en route to Peru following delivery to the owner of Houston-based BPZ Energy and sail-away on S August.

According to Wei Huaqing, the project manager, the unit will be arriving in Peruvian waters in  mid-september, and BPZ will spend one month installing two power engines and drilling equipment.

"Drilling is scheduled in mid- October," Wei says.
 

Classed by French classification agency Bureau Veritas, the production platform is being transported by the Norwegian-flagged transport vessel Osprey, part of the Offshore Heavy Transport Company fleet.

BPZ said earlier that the drilling and operational permit is expected to be obtained before mating the contracted drilling rig with the CX- 15 platform.

The new unit will operate at the Corvina field in Block Z-I off Peru in a water depth of 50 metres. It has the capacity to produce 12,200 barrels per day of oil and 12.8 million cubic feet Per day of gas and to inject 3500 bpd of water. The facility will be capable of supporting a drilling rig with 24 well slots.
 

Operational permit The buoy ant tower hull for the facility, was designed and engineered through a joint venture between Wison affiliate Horton Wison Deepwater and GMC, while Wison Offshore & Marine (USA) provided project management, procurement and construction services for the facility's 2500.tonne buoyant tower hull and 1500-tonne topsides.
 

Fabricated at wison's Nantong facility in Jiangsu province, the unit consists of four ring-stiffened  connected cylindrical tubes, or "cells", with one central suction  pile. Each cell measures 8.4 metres in diameter and 60.1 metres in length, with a total hull length, including suction pile, of 69.9 metres. This design, which is similar to proven cell spar technology, was a key enabler for the project, due to the fact that it will not require a derrick barge for installation as it will be located in a region with minimal resident offshore con struction vessels.
 

When installed, the buoyant tower will support the 1500-tonne three-level topsides facility designed by Audubon Engineering and GMC.
 

Mark Slider, Wison's project manager, told Upstream that the innovative design of the platform offers a cost-effective option to develop marginal fields because the installation cost is significantly lower as compared with other production units such as jack-up plat forms.
 

After upending, fixed ballast is pumped into the spud can, forcing the can into the bottom soil.
 

The topsides are installed using a float-over method via a multi function pontoon.
 

Easy Installation Slider says that an advantage of the concept is that installation doesn't involve a heavy-lift vessel
 

In some parts of the world, the heavy-lift vessel is not always available, and to get one there would cost more than the rest of the project. "Peru is one of these pi aces,' he says.
 

'Without this concept and installation methodology, the field will he uneconomic," he says.
 

"Just mobilisation and demobilisation will be an overwhelming factor and cost," he says. "In our case, the transportation vessel is also the installation vesseL"
 

Slider says BPZ shopped around in the US and Singapore to find a yard to build the unit before turning its gaze to yards in China for economic masons.
 

Wison is different to other Chinese yards in that it has an integrated Western and Chinese team to work together to execute the project, he says. "Our manpower and management is better on this project than any other projects I have seen,' Slider says.
 

'That sold BPZ on Wison and  got us into the game," he says, adding that it made sense for BPZ  to choose Wison also because  the concept comes from Wison's company Horton Wison Deep water.
 

Slider says that it is not practical to move the buoyant hulls for operation at another location after the field is depleted, but it is always possible to retrieve the topsides and modify them for use elsewhere.
 

"Delivering this state-of-the-art prototype project in a record time of 11 months and within budget clearly reaffirms Wison's position as a preferred quality and reliable provider of choice in the offshore and marine industry, especially in this part of the world," says Wison Offshore & Marine executive vice president of operations Daniel Chang.
 

Richard Spies, chief operating officer of BPZ Energy, says the importance of this design is that it enables his company to develop other future discoveries that are located between 200 feet and 700 feet ofwater.
 

IN ANOTItER development, Wison is finalising the production engineering of what is billed as the world's first floating liquefaction, regasification and storage unit contracted to be built at its Nantong facility for Belgium's pioneering liquefied natural gas player Exmar.
 

Wison sources said the steel cutting is expected towards the end of this year to allow on-time delivery in the last quarter of 2014.
 

The unit will be operated by Exmar under a build-own-operate contract with Pacific Rubbles Energy, for operations at the La Creciente field off Colombia in the Caribbean Sea, starting in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Media Source: Upstream
Writer:  Xu Yihe
Date: 24 August 2012
Page:60 ,World Feature