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E&P
Saudi Aramco said the first phase production start-up at the Manifa field commenced recently.
Manifa starts first phase
of production A
CCORDING TO A statement from Saudi Aramco, the first phase of production at the Manifa field has begun three months ahead of schedule and well within the programme’s approved budget. The Manifa field’s production capacity is expected to reach 500,000 bpd by July 2013, and is planned to reach its full design capacity of 900,000 bpd of Arabian Heavy crude oil by the end of 2014, while Saudi Aramco’s maximum sustained capacity will be maintained at the level preceding Manifa production. Last October, Ali Al-Naimi, minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Saudi Aramco’s chairman of the board of directors, led the board members on a review tour of the Manifa field production facilities and inaugurated reservoir water injection along the perimeter of the Manifa field. The Manifa project is unique in many ways with its innovative engineering design to develop the field’s optimum production capacity, while caring for the environment and optimizing its budget. The Manifa field includes dry-land rigs linked by a total of 41km of causeways with a number of elevated bridges designed to maintain natural water flow in the Manifa Bay and preserving natural marine nurseries.
Multiple successes Including a 420 MW heat and electricity plant, the project employed best in class technologies in infrastructure, drilling and production activities consuming more than 80mn man hours without a lost time injury, one of the best safety records in the industry, which qualified the project to receive the “Innovative Oil Project of the Year” award. Speaking to Saudi Aramco’s leadership and
Khalid Al-Falih
The Manifa project is unique in many ways with its innovative engineering design to develop the field’s optimum production capacity employees, president and chief executive officer, Khalid A. Al-Falih, congratulated the Manifa Project team on their multiple successes by bringing Manifa on stream three months ahead of schedule in line with operational excellence, safety and environmental stewardship and reaching high level
of Saudization in operations, mainly attributable to Saudi Aramco’s investments in human resources, operations and infrastructure developments. “The Manifa story will be a very bright and shining example in our corporate history,” he said. “It really opens a new page in terms of overcoming various hurdles and complexities most notably through human and technological innovation,” said the CEO. It is a testimony to the company’s values, particularly citizenship, by caring for the environment, Saudization and relying on national vendors to the maximum extent.” Al-Falih also praised training programmes offered by the company to its employees on the latest techniques in the design, construction, and operation of mega and advanced oil projects. Manifa, discovered back in the 1950s, will not boost the kingdom’s sustainable production capacity beyond its stated 12.5mn bpd because Saudi Aramco plans to ease production at some of its mature reservoirs to increase their ultimate recovery rates in the long term, Falih has previously said. Manifa will help the state-run company maintain export levels without running its older fields so hard, while supplying a new 400,000bpd refinery run by Aramco and France’s Total at Jubail on the OPEC heavyweight’s east coast with Arabian heavy crude. “You will not see a change in export and production capacities,” a Saudi industry source said, adding “Production capacity will continue as 12.5 (mn bpd) for Saudi Arabia.” The Manifa field will also be used to supply crude to an Aramco joint-venture refinery with China’s Sinopec in Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast. n
Views of Saudi Aramco’s Manifa field
20 Oil Review Middle East Issue Three 2013
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