Ce préambule était posé pour la suite :
Il apparait maintenant que ce champs serait le 4 iéme du monde avec 50 milliards de barils de réserves (en place).
Le projet en cours est de construire 4 iles artificielles (mer peu profonde) aux lieu de mettre des dizaines de puits classiques offshores.
Contrairement à l' Arabie Saoudite ici EXXON est impliquée dans l' extraction/developpement.
Le projet est de porter la production actuelle de 550 000 b/j à 750 000 b/j .
UAE has world’s 4th largest oilfield
Upper Zakum sits on 50bn barrels of crude and will pump 750,000 bpd
The UAE is pushing ahead with the development of the world’s fourth largest oilfield to expand its output by nearly 40 per cent to 750,000 barrels per day and maintain its position as one of the top global hydrocarbon exporters.
The US giant ExxonMobil is developing the offshore Upper Zakum, home to a staggering 50 billion barrels of proven crude, making it the fourth largest oilfield on earth, according to a senior company executive.
“Beneath the glistening waters off the coast of Abu Dhabi lies one of the world’s largest oilfields… some 50 miles northeast of the emirate’s capital, an estimated 50 billion barrels of oil sit below the sea,” said Morten Mauritzen, ExxonMobil’s lead country manager in Abu Dhabi.
“Ranked as the fourth largest on earth, the Upper Zakum field is made up of layer upon layer of complex reservoirs…on the water’s surface, a handful of manmade island are taking shape,” he said in a report obtained by Emirates 24/7 at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition which concluded on Thursday.
Mauritzen said the artificial islands would replace more than 100 conventional steel drilling towers around the super oilfield. He said multiple wells would be drilled, an “innovation” that ExxonMobil hopes will save billions of dollars during the six-year development as well as benefit the environment.
“We looked at the local expertise in constructing islands, said Mauritzen, a Norwegian. “And we thought we are onto something here.”
He did not mention the other three largest oilfields in the world but Saudi Arabia’s Khurais field is rated as by far the biggest crude reservoir on earth, pumping in excess of five million bpd since it was discovered over 70 years ago.
ExxonMobil was awarded a 28 per cent stake in Upper Zakum by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company two years ago under an agreement allowing the US firm to develop the complex field and raise its output by 40 per cent.
Once completed, the project will lift the field’s capacity to around 750,000 bpd in 2015 and enable it to pump at maximum production for 24 years.
......
He said the idea was to build four artificial islands and utilise ExxonMobil’s extended-reach drilling technology, which allows wells to be drilled vertically and horizontally to target reservoirs several miles away. Similar technology has been tried and tested in ExxonMobil’s concessions in Northeast Russia, he added.
“We have proven this is feasible in Upper Zakum…this spring, Zadco drilled two successful pilot wells to demonstrate that these long wells can indeed be drilled.”
Mauritzen said the artificial islands have safety and environmental benefits as well as cost reduction benefits in the “$multi-billion range.”
He said the plan to develop the massive offshore Upper Zakum is going ahead despite recent furore over the offshore oil production worldwide following the massive leakage in British Petroleum’s concession in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.emirates247.com/business/ene ... 8-1.314757
et dire que ce champs géant n' apparaissait meme pas dans ce classement de Geopolis
viewtopic.php?p=267785#p267785
en recherchant je suis tombé sur le papier de Fredrik Robelius de 2005 :
http://www.peakoil.net/AIMseminar/UU_AIM_Robelius.pdf
Le champs de Zakum apparait en 7iéme position, et visiblement les projections actuelles sont de l' ordre de de 2 à 3 fois les reserves estimées en 2005.
ce papier de Robelius avait été cité dans ce post de 2007 :
viewtopic.php?p=109133#p109133
