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Donald Prior |
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Hazira Gas Field
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Don Prior has studied project management in the field and formally through university and institute courses. He is well versed in international project management which includes cultural awareness and international corporate culture. He has operated with traditional linear organizations, line-staff organizations, pure product organizations and with the more modern matrix organizational systems. He has designed combination organizations to fit the host culture and the home culture of MNCs in international joint ventures. He has handled the project manager – line manager interface in international joint ventures from the perspective of each side. He has been responsible for the complete life cycle of field development from exploration, drilling, development, production facilities, transportation and storage both offshore and onshore. Don Prior has managed many projects over the last ten years as an international consultant. The two most recent have been the Remboue oil field development in Gabon and the Hazira gas field development in India. The Remboue Oil FieldBritish Gas drilled the discovery well for the Remboue oil field in Gabon in the late eighties. Chauvco Resources took over the field in 1995. At that time it had only one tested oil well and no facilities.
Chauvco Resources entered Gabon, set up an office in Libreville, contracted a drilling rig and commenced a development program in 1996. Don Prior was the original company representative in Gabon and as such was the “Company Man” on the drilling of the first few wells. He then became the Operations Manager and supervised (from the office) the construction of the early production facilities including down hole jet pumps, the gathering system, the storage facilities, the marine loading terminal and the production infrastructure. This included a thirty man field camp, transportation, communications and in-town office facilities in Libreville. Schlumberger IPM was the drilling and completion contractor. Incat was the field construction contractor.
The scope of this project changed many times during construction but required initial production before 14 August, 1997. This date was met with the first production ceremonies attended by the Canadian Ambassador to Gabon along with many Gabonese officials. Hazira Gas Field
ONGC drilled the discovery well in the Hazira field looking for oil. They subsequently released the field for development to the joint venture of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation and Niko Resources from Canada in 1996. Niko, as operator, re-evaluated the geology of the area and determined there was a considerable gas field up dip from the original well. Re-interpretation of the available seismic led to a field development proposal being submitted to the Director General of Hydrocarbons. This proposal included drilling 5 additional wells onshore, building a 1.5 kilometer causeway into the Gulf of Kambaht, building an island at the end of the causeway and drilling sixteen directional wells from the island. Later development would include at least one offshore platform and up to a total of sixty wells. Initial estimates were for 1.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves.
Don Prior was assigned as General Manager – India Operations in 1998. At this time there was considerable conflict between the joint venture partners and between the joint venture and the Government of India. He subsequently set up an organization which greatly reduced the conflict between the joint venture partners and the Government of India. As General Manager he completed the Land Based Drilling Platform (LBDP) and the first eight directional wells on the platform. He also completed the changeover to a 100 MMCFD gas plant facility and the connection of this facility to an eight-inch sales line, an eighteen-inch sales line and a thirty-six inch sales line. He organized the local administration and operations to accommodate the creeping scope of the original field development project.
This project included extensive co-ordination with the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), the Government of India through the Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and the local customers represented by Gujarat Gas Company Limited (GGCL) and Essar Steel. The cultural dimensions of the host country were integrated into the inter-company negotiations and contracts. Conflict resolution became a regular occurrence but all parties could see an eventual mutual benefit to resolution. This project demanded international skills in drilling, operations, production, logistics, administration, personnel, labor laws, and conflict resolution. Remboue Marine TransportationThe Remboue Oil Field in Gabon was acquired by PanAfrican Energy in 2001. The field was revitalized after a five year shut in period. PanAfrican acquired all the existing facilities but no means of transportation out of the area. In 2001-2 Don Prior assisted in the design and supervised the initial set up of a barge and push boat to deliver 2500 barrels of oil per day to the Gabon Estuary off the port facilities of Owendo. Don Prior acquired the motor tanker Huracan and subsequently the motor tanker Betty Theresa to receive the barges in the estuary. Initially the motor tankers delivered the oil directly to Abidjan but serious delays at the Abidjan refinery and port facilities led to direct sales to visiting tankers in the Gabon estuary.
A subsequent project of delivering the oil to the Etame Marin FPSO in southern Gabon waters was evaluated. It was estimated that a $100,000 per month saving could be established using this method of transportation to market. Unfortunately after a month of evaluation and resourcing, permission was not obtained from the FPSO operators to test the proposed procedures. At this time the marine transportation system is in review. One option would be to establish a local market which would reduce the delivery costs although it may limit the sales volumes. This is an ongoing evaluation in the continued efforts to reduce operating costs for the Remboue field.
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