ALGERIA - Oilfield Profiles - BHP Petroleum - Berkine Fields.

BHP Petroleum of Australia, operating in the country since 1989, will begin producing high quality oil from fields in the Berkine Basin as from late 2001, with a capacity of 60,000 b/d in the first phase. It has made major oil discoveries in its Blocks 401a (Rhourde El Louh) and 402a (Sif Fatima), in Erg Orientale of the Ghadames zone just north and east of Block 404. Full development of the fields is to involve about $1 bn and production could eventually exceed 100,000 b/d. With BHP holding 45%, its partners are Agip (41.25%) which acquired the stakes of Anardako and Lasmo in 1999, Maersk (13.75%).

The PSA, initiated in December 1988, was ratified by BHP and Sonatrach on June 24, 1989. The operator, BHP Petroleum (Algeria), is registered in the US. It has drilled several exploration wells. The first well in late 1991 yielded oil and gas in Block 401a. The second was dry. The third was drilled in late 1993 and yielded 36 deg. oil at a depth of 3,000 metres. From then, BHP retained Schlumberger for well-logging. In 1997, a well drilled to a depth of 4,000 metres tested 5,570 b/d of 42 deg. oil from a sandstone reservoir in Block 402a. A well into the ROD/BSFN field in Block 402a yielded over 18,000 b/d in February 1998 and confirmed that the field extended into Agip's Block 403a. In October 1998, BHP began drilling three wells. In 2000 BHP's $500m development programme for five fields were approved by Sonatrach. The fields will be on stream in the first half of 2003 with peak production set at 80,000 b/d and 170 MCF/d of gas. The oil output will move through a pipeline to Agip/Sonatrach's existing facility at Bir Rebaa less than 20 km to the north-west.

BHP is operating in another block, Boukhechba (9,000 sq km) north-west of the Illizi Basin, which it acquired under a PSA signed with Sonatrach on May 31, 1997. BHP was to spend $62m and drill eight exploration wells. In late 2000 BHP brought into this block Woodside Petroleum of Australia as an equal partner. It also gave Woodside 15% in the Ohanet risk service contract (RSC), where its other partners are Japan Ohanet Oil & Gas (JNOC, Itochu & Teikoku together holding 30%) and Petrofac Resources (10%), with BHP retaining 45%. It also sold to Woodside a stake in the East Hassi R'Mel gas study agreement. The parent BHP has been negotiating with Sonatrach on the latter's possible use of BHP's radical compact LNG technology known as cLNG.