Abu Dhabi - ADNOC-Total Operations.

Total has been an associate of ADNOC in various projects, both at the upstream and downstream ends of the industry, including the LNG venture and GASCO. It has helped ADNOC at Upper Zakum, in new offshore operations undertaken by the national company since the early 1980s, and in the Abu Bukhoosh field which straddles the median waters with Iran. Total Abu Al Bukhoosh Oil Co. (TBK) was formed in January 1973 to develop, operate and own the oil produced from the Abu Bukhoosh, discovered in 1969 by ADMA. This is an extension of Iran's Salman field. TBK was in early 1973 owned 51% by Total (the operator), 24.5% by Charter Oil of the US, 12.25% by Sunningdale Oil of Canada and 12.25% by Amerada Hess. In early 1991, Charter Oil sold 60% of its equity to Total. Thus Total's TBK stake rose to 65.7% and Charter's was cut to 9.8%. In subsequent ownership changes, Charter Oil and Sunningdale Oil sold their equity to Total whose equity rose to 75% and to Amerada Hess whose stake reached 25%. In June 1996 Amerada Hess sold its 25% to Indonesia Petroleum (Inpex) of Japan, after the acquisition was approved by Total and ADNOC. Inpex won the deal in competition with Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) which had bid for the stake since late 1995. The field, some 45 km north-east of Das Island, came on stream in June 1974. Its sustainable capacity was raised gradually to reach 60,000 b/d of (32 deg. API with 1.8% S) oil in 1986, producing from Arab reservoirs. During the war between Iran and Iraq, however, the field's topside facilities were hit by missiles in October/November 1986. As a result production (57,000 b/d) stopped. Although the production platform was not hit, the attack caused serious damage to the service platform and other installations. The field resumed production in May 1987. Its sustainable capacity fell to 40,000 b/d in 1991. Further development work brought the field's capacity to 45,000 b/d by 1995, although it can produce more than 50,000 b/d for a short period. The field also produces 10,000 b/d of condensate and has a large Khuff reservoir of non-associated gas developed by Technip Geoproduction and supplying gas to the LNG complex on Das island. The Khuff reservoir is to be developed further, together with a similar reservoir at Umm Shaif, under a $1 bn project for a production of 640 MCF/day at the initial phase from 2001. Of this, 500 MCF/day would be piped to Dubai. In 1995, Total began work on a new EOR system, using gas injection techniques developed in a two-year pilot study, with the aim of boosting recovery by 15m barrels over 10 years from the Arab D2 reservoir. A series of horizontal injection wells were drilled in 1996, with locations optimised through 3D seismic studies.