Weatherford International of the US on 19 December said its Libyan subsidiary had completed pipeline work in the offshore Bahr Essalam gasfield, part of the West Libya Gas Project (WLGP). Weatherford said the work was carried out on behalf of Saipem Libya and included flooding, cleaning, hydrotesting, dewatering, nitrogen packing and caliper pig inspection activities for the pre-commissioning of five pipelines in the gasfield located in Block NC-41, 110km off the Libyan coast. Work started in September 2004 under a contract worth $4.5mn. The Bahr Essalam pipelines and the Sabratha platform are located in 220ms of water. Gas from the subsea production wells and pipeline manifold structures passes through a 22in gas and 8in insulated pipe to the Sabratha platform for initial processing, then products are exported from the platform to the 10bcm/year processing plant onshore at Melitta via a 107km/36in gas pipeline and a 10in condensate pipeline. From Melitta, the gas will be routed into the Greenstream pipeline system and exported to Europe via Sicily. Work also included a 4in service line. The scope of work was divided into two phases. The first comprised the simultaneous onshore and offshore flooding, cleaning, gauging and initial hydrotest of all the pipelines, the second phase involved testing the pipelines after final tie-ins, including further hydrotesting, dewatering, air drying of the export pipeline, MEG swabbing of the infield pipelines, and the nitrogen purging and packing of all the pipelines.
WLGP is a 50:50 joint venture between Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), and shareholdings in Greenstream are Eni 75% and NOC 25%. The project was launched in 1999, but suffered delays as a result of international sanctions against Libya. Last summer, as part of Phase 2 development for WLGP, the first well in the Bahr Essalam oilfield was connected to the Sabratha platform, where gas and condensate from 27 offshore wells will be collected (MEES, 29 August). Phase 1 of WLGP was inaugurated in October 2004 with production coming from the onshore Wafa field in Block NC-169 (MEES, 11 October 2004), where production is 4-4.5bcm/y. Phase 2 output will amount to some 6bcm/y. Peak production for the WLGP calls for gas output to reach 10bcm/y, of which 8bcm/y is to go to Italy and 2bcm/y will supply Libya’s domestic market. The project will also produce 47,000 b/d of crude and 48,000 b/d of condensate and NGL. The 520km Greenstream pipeline has been delivering gas to Gela, Sicily, since 1 October 2004 with shipments reaching 4bcm/y since January of this year. The pipeline has a diameter of 32in and was laid at depths of up to 1,127ms by Eni affiliate Saipem.
