Puneet Varma (Editor)

Seria Field

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Country
  
Brunei

Producing formations
  
Upper Miocene

Operator
  
Royal Dutch Shell

Location
  
Seria

Discovery
  
1929

Seria Field

Seria field top 5 facts


Seria Field is the largest oil field in northwest Borneo, discovered in 1929. The oil is accumulated in Upper Miocene sandstone, trapped in Seria Anticline that straddles the present day coastline. This field has produced more than 1 billion barrels of oil for more than 75 years. Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) is the operator of this field.

Contents

The exploration of the field started in late 1926, when F. F. Marriot (British Malay Petroleum Company Field Superintendent) and T. G. Cochrane (General Manager of Sarawak Oilfields Limited) smelled "oil" (H2S) in the Kuala Belait area and asked Straub, a Swiss geophysicist, to do a geophysical analysis of the area.

At the end of World War II, the Japanese ignited 14 of the 21 wells in the Seria field before evacuating. Australian servicemen attempted to control the fires by stopping the flow of the wells.

Wells

To date, more than 900 wells have been drilled in Seria Field, and more than 350 wells are still in production. Key wells include:

  • S-1 was the first exploration well, drilled in July 1928, which began producing oil in April 1929.
  • S-2 was brought on stream in 1930. After two blow-outs followed by shutdowns and deliberate sabotage during the war years, it settled to a steady flow on gas-lift and proved to be a valuable producer.
  • S-5, which is still producing and is the earliest well still in production in Seria Field.
  • S-328 was drilled in 1953 with a blow-out. With a power of a minor earthquake, it demolished an adjacent building and left a crater flooded with water.
  • S-454 was spudded in the middle of a housing area.
  • S-516 was drilled in 1956 with a serious blow-out. A jet of oil, gas and sand rose over 30 meters into the air, and the well had to be 'killed' with 90 tonnes of mud and plugging material.
  • S-558 was drilled in 1964 across the road from Brunei Shell's head office.

    • References

    Seria Field Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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