Balnaves

The Balnaves oil development project will enable oil to be extracted from the Balnaves reservoir, a remote reserve situated in the northern Carnarvon Basin approximately 180 kilometres off the northern Western Australian coast.

Balnaves is an Undersea oil Extraction Project

The Balnaves project is an undersea operation that processes liquids from

the Balnaves reservoir for export through a dedicated floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The Balnaves project is situated alongside the larger oil reservoir of the Brunello gas field about 180 kilometres west-north-west of Dampier on the Western Australian coast.

Balnaves is a Joint Venture Operation Involving Apache Corporation and KUFPEC

The Balnaves oil field was discovered in 2009 by United States based oil exploration company, Apache Corporation, while it was undertaking exploration and appraisal drilling in the Julimar-Brunello natural gas field project area. The Balnaves oil project is a joint venture operation between Kuwait Foreign Petroleum exploration Company, KUFPEC.

Apache is Managing and Operating the Balnaves Project

Apache is responsible for the day to day operating and management of the Balnaves oil project. This responsibility extends to the drilling of the wells, as well as all the undersea facilities and getting the oil to the FPSO, 'Armada Claire.' The Balnaves project, that is being developed in 135 metres of water, incorporates four undersea wells that are connected to one manifold. The FPSO is connected to the undersea operation by means of a disconnectable riser turret mooring system. Oil from the two production wells is transported through the manifold, flexible flow lines and risers that take it to the FPSO for separation and treatment. Used water is reinjected into the reservoir through a water injection well. The gas produced during the extraction of the oil is compressed onboard the FPSO and re-injected into another reservoir through a gas injection well. This re-injected gas will be available at a future date for extraction by the adjacent Julimar Development project that will ultimately feed the gas into the Chevron operated Wheatstone gas project.

Balnaves FPSO 'Armada Clair' is Owned by Bumi Armada

The FPSO, 'Armada Clair,' is owned by Bumi Armada and is leased to Apache for the duration of the project. The 'Armada Clair' is specifically designed to separate oil and gas as well as dehydration and stabilisation of the product. The oil produced in this way will be stored in cargo tanks while awaiting export by means of a shuttle oil tanker. In this way KUFPEC and Apache are able to unlock the potential of this relative small and isolated reservoir, through cost effective and innovative strategies.

The Balnaves oil development project has an expected life of around five years with oil production peaking at about 30,000 barrels a day. It is expected the Balnaves reservoir contains 17 million barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic feet of gas. The 'Armada Clair' FPSO has the ability to handle 30,000 barrels of oil, 60,000 barrels of water and 50 million standard cubic feet of gas a day.

Apache Oil Corporation was founded in Minnesota, USA, in 1954. Balnaves is being developed by its fully owned subsidiary company Apache Energy. Production is expected to commence in 2014.