This is news concerning ChevronTexaco but issued by a ChevronTexaco subsidiary, ChevronTexaco Upstream Europe, and archived here for record purpose.
ABERDEEN, UK, Oct. 1, 2002 -- ChevronTexaco Upstream Europe, operator of the UK North Sea Alba field, today announced first oil from Alba Extreme South, the latest phase in the field's development.
The phased development expansion will initially add over 50,000 barrels of oil per day to Alba production, offsetting production decline and maintaining a plateau rate of up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
This initial phase of Alba Extreme South was completed on schedule and under budget, providing employment for approximately 2,000 people over the past twelve months. Production is from four new subsea wells tied back to the Alba Northern Platform, located in block 16/26, 130 miles north east of Aberdeen. These four wells will be further supplemented by a water injection well and two additional producing wells by early 2003.
John McDonald, president and managing director of ChevronTexaco Upstream Europe said, "The success of the Alba Extreme South project is due to the contributions and skills of many fine people and companies working together safely, efficiently and with a common purpose. This is especially important in a maturing province where remaining field developments are smaller and returns more exposed. A highly collaborative effort has resulted in a project that achieved first oil just over a year after receiving project sanction from the UK government -- a greatly satisfying testament to the capabilities of our employees and contractors."
"During the course of the project, nearly half a million man hours of work have been carried out on Alba Northern Platform without serious injury or incident," explains Chuck Taylor, ChevronTexaco Upstream Europe's general manager. "This is an outstanding achievement considering that the modification work has been done while production and drilling operations on the platform have continued. I believe the commitment to safety that the senior management of our contracting companies have made throughout the project has been instrumental in this accomplishment."
Notes to Editors:
The Alba Partners are:
| Chevron U.K. Limited (Operator) (a ChevronTexaco company) |
21.17 percent |
| Statoil (U.K.) Limited | 17.00 percent |
| ARCO British Limited (a BP company) | 15.50 percent |
| Fina Petroleum Development Limited (a TotalFinaElf company) | 12.65 percent |
| Conoco (U.K.) Theta Limited (a ConocoPhillips company) | 11.75 percent |
| Conoco (U.K.) Limited (a ConocoPhillips company) | 9.33 percent |
| Unilon Oil Explorations Limited (an Energy Africa company) | 6.80 percent |
| Baytrust Oil Explorations Limited (an Energy Africa company) | 1.20 percent |
| Conoco Petroleum Limited (a ConocoPhillips company) | 2.35 percent |
| Enterprise Oil U.K. Limited (a Shell company) | 2.25 percent |
The Alba oil field is located in Block 16/26 in the UK central North Sea. Production commenced in January 1994 with export via shuttle tanker.
The Alba Extreme South project involved the installation of a new subsea production manifold and a five kilometre pipeline bundle and major modifications to Alba Northern Platform have been carried out. The Stena Spey drilling rig has drilled the new subsea wells and will remain on contract with ChevronTexaco until the completion of the project.
Cautionary Statement Relevant to Forward-Looking Information for the Purpose of "Safe Harbor" Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Some of the items discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements relating to this project, including expectations about costs, date of completion, barrels of oil to be recovered and daily oil production. These are based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections. The statements included in this release are not guarantees. Actual outcomes and results could differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements.