BP Cusiana Field Development

British Petroleum engaged Fluor for the initial planning for the Phase II Facilities Development of the Cusiana Oil Field in Central Colombia. Discovered the previous year, the Cusiana field is a significant oil field in the Llanos foothills and contains light, compositionally variable oil with associated gas.

The Early Production System (EPS) and associated infrastructure were installed at the Cusiana Field on the eastern slope of the Andes in Colombia. The EPS was a fast-track project designed to achieve early commercial production. It consisted initially of two production trains and had provisions for two additional trains. Each train was designed to produce 40,000 barrels per day of pipeline-quality oil, compress and inject 80 million standard cubic feet per day of associated gas, and treat and inject 8,000 barrels of water per day.

Client's Challenge

Given the opportunity for a new, significant reserve discovery, BP had fast-tracked the Cusiana field development investment. The site's remote location, lack of existing infrastructure and limited local supply chain imposed logistical difficulties to access and construct the project.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor's scope of work included basic engineering for the production facilities, power generation and other process related utilities. Additional responsibilities included:

Procured multiple lightweight reciprocating compressors to reduce schedule and achieve rapid first oil and return on investment for BP
Optimized equipment design to allow for transport across the Andes
Staged development in order to achieve rapid first oil
Provided engineering and project management support at the engineering, procurement and construction contractor's offices during design, procurement and construction
Facilitated transportation of materials to Barranquilla to facilitate local content and logistics enhancement
Performed inspection at vendor shops

Conclusion

EPS was a follow-up scope of work to Phase I, which was engineered by Fluor for Distral, a Colombian contractor. The BP Phase II conceptual engineering work was successfully completed in September 1993, and preliminary engineering completed in 1994.