Comparison of Different Offshore Oil Field Development Concepts

This paper summarizes a number of different development models and three major development concepts for offshore oil field developments that may be applied throughout the world. Concept 1, considers offshore facilities connected to a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) tanker; Concept 2 considers offshore facilities connected by a pipeline to an onshore receiving terminal; Concept 3 considers offshore facilities connected by a pipeline to existing infrastructure located in the surrounding area. Based upon the same oil and gas reserves and production profiles, the three concepts were compared in terms of investment cost and economic return on investment. The results show that Concept 3, a development concept using existing infrastructure, is the most economical when the existing infrastructure is located within a reasonable distance from the new developments. The relative merits and project economics of Concepts 1 and 2 are greatly influenced by factors including the size of the reserves, water depth, distance to shore etc. This paper is useful in determining the optimal development concept, and it provides guidance for the preparation of an overall development plan.