Damaged Lines The Reason For Jabiru Slowdown - Bhp

The Age

Saturday March 6, 1993

BHP said production from its Jabiru oilfield in the Timor Sea off north-west Western Australia had been hit because of damage to production lines.

``Production is down to about 4000 barrels a day and that is essentially because two of our production wells have been shut in," a BHP spokesman said.

Production from Jabiru is usually between 18,000 and 20,000 barrels a day, the spokesman said.

He would not comment on market rumors that BHP had declared force majeure on certain shipments, saying it did not comment on individual contracts.

BHP's wells in the Timor Sea produce a combined 75,000 barrels a day.

Jabiru, which has projected recoverable oil reserves of 13 million barrels, uses a floating production facility.

The BHP spokesman said the production problem at Jabiru was caused by damage to the ``umbilicals" used to control output of the wells.

Wells numbers 8 and 1a had been shut in ``for a few days", he said.

It would take a few days, he said, to assess the damage at the field, about 600 miles west of Darwin. ``We will then have some idea of what we have to do to fix it." Jabiru is 50 per cent owned by the operator BHP. Other interest holders are Esso Timor Sea, a unit of Exxon Corp, with 18.75 per cent; Norcen International 12.5 per cent; Santos 10.31 per cent; Ampolex 6.25 per cent; Brenda Mines 1.1 per cent; and Norpac Securities one per cent. _AAP

© 1993 The Age

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