Kuwait's Oilfields - The Northern Fields.

In February 2003, as the number of US and UK troops landing in Kuwait for the invasion of Iraq increased considerably, the northern half of the emirate became a closed military zone and KOC shut two small oilfields, Abdali and Ratqa, close to its border. Both fields were only pumping about 25,000 b/d. Ratqa is on the border with Iraq. Operations at the other northern oilfields - Rawdhatain, Sabriya and the small structure of Bahra - continued even after the US-led war began on March 20, 2003.

The swift war, which ended with the fall of Saddam's regime in Baghdad on April 9, 2003, did not cause any damage to Kuwait's oil installations. Operations at Ratqa and Abdali were resumed thereafter.

The northern fields - Rawdhatain, Sabriya, Bahra, Ratqa and Abdali - are to be expanded on a larger scale than in the case of the others in Kuwait and KPC wants one of the three competing international consortia to be involved under 20/25-year IBBCs. The five northern fields should have a sustainable capacity of 900,000 b/d within four years of development work, compared to 550,000 b/d at present (see table in OMT). The consortium should also increase the fields' recoverable oil reserves.

Rawdhatain, found in 1955 by KOC (BP/Gulf Oil), has been the second most important field in Kuwait. It is in the north-east. In July 1990 it had almost 55 wells averaging 8,600 ft in depth. The field's proven reserves have been put at 5.1 bn barrels of 29[degrees] API oil from Mauddud, 38[degrees] from Zubair, and 39[degrees] from Burgan Fms of the Lower/Middle Cretaceous - plus almost 2.5 bn barrels of lighter oils including 42[degrees] from Ratawi limestones of the Lower Cretaceous. It went on stream in 1960.

Rehabilitated after the 1991 war, with several well-fires extinguished and some of the installations totally rebuilt, Rawdhatain at the beginning of 2002 had a capacity of 220,000 b/d dependent on GC-15. But the field then could produce up to 600,000 b/d for a short period.

A major explosion at Rawdhatain on Jan. 31, 2002 resulting from a gas leak caused the destruction of the field's 280,000 b/d GC 15 and 204 MCF/d gas booster station (BS) 130. Output at the 120,000 b/d GC 23 and the 200,000 b/d GC 25 was affected after power supplies were cut. The insurer, AIG, then appointed Robertson & Co. of Geneva as the loss adjustor. SK Engineering & Construction of South Korea and UOP of the US assessed the damage. The incident led to the resignation of Adel Khaled al-Subaih as oil minister. Although later KOC managed to restore oil production to about 205,000 b/d, Kuwait still lost 300,000 b/d of capacity which fell from the early 2002 level of 2.7m b/d. New capacity was made ready after the reopening of gas-boosting station No. 131 at GC-15 in January 2005. GC-15 was rebuilt and restarted in January 2005. In April GC-15's capacity reached 380,000 b/d (see background in gmt22KwtFieldsMay30-05).

Under an IBBC for the northern fields, the capacity of Rawdhatain should be boosted to 550,000 b/d in three-four years of development work. This should be sustainable for the 20/25-year duration of the IBBC. Most of the increase is to involve light Ratawi oils.

BP and ChevronTexaco have helped in the northern fields. Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) has the five-year, KD36.3m ($121.2m) job to provide PMC for Area 1 covering the northern fields. Fluor Daniel has another five-year contract, worth KD39.3m ($131.5m) to provide PMC for the southern and western fields.

The production and GCs at Rawdhatain are linked to Sabriya and Bahra. KOC made important gas discoveries in Rawdhatain and Sabriya in August and September 2000. Further gas discoveries were made in the past four years. These discoveries have been tested with the help of Total.