History of Oil Field Oil was once produced only from places that were easy to find and

collect. Oil was use all over the world as a medicine to cure numerous diseases such as scurvy, gout, toothache and rheumatism in the old age. Since it is combustible and it also used as an instrument of war and also used in lamps as fuel. The beginning of the petroleum age was opened by finding of black goo seeping in a water well near Black Creek in Canada in the 1850s by Charles Tripp. The first well was drilled on 27 August 1859 by Edwin L. Drake at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the first commercial oil well in North America. The oil rush that followed prompted explorers to start looking beyond the easy oil sources, searching deeper below the Earths surface and farther around the globe. Some of the most promising areas for petroleum development today are also in the most remote corners of the world, with challenging geographic and climate conditions. In 1888, Karl Benz invented the petrol engine. When the car entered the scene in the early 1900s, the demand for petroleum increased further. From 1900 to 1910, automobile production increased from 8 000 to 450 000 cars per year. This increase was heavily influenced by the mass-production of the model T car by Henry Ford in 1909. With the advance of technology and development of diesel engine, worlds demand of petroleum oil rise up dramatically in the first days of 20th century. Since those days, oil has been explored and drilled out from deeper formation in onshore area and also in offshore all over the world. Nowadays, almost all of the world inland basins and continental shelf in offshore areas have been explored and exploited but the worlds energy requirement is still rising up. Oil and gas industries have to face with the technological and financial challenges to explore in far and deeper water offshore area. Since oil and gas is the most profitable business but its also a most risky one, the role of field development plan becomes vital. Field Development Plan Field development plan is a comprehensive document describing the various aspects of a planned field development. Conceptual development plans are still in fairly broad terms because detailed design studies are not justified in this stage and so that detail studies are needed to go to field development plan. There is a further process of elimination to be done through in more detail from the technical, economical, political and environmental point of view. Despite the plans in this stage are not detailed, a sufficient amount of detail must be included to make the technical analysis and costing realistic.

i. SUMMARY This report analyses the field development options for the Tantalum field. Seven options were identified and ranked in ascending order based on cost of development. Development options were narrowed down to two options based on cost and investment risk analysis. The Fastest Development Theme was selected after extensive technical and commercial analysis. ii. INTRODUCTION An oil field development plan is about justifying the business case for a chosen option of development. To be able to do this, all legal, political and technically viable options and their constituent parts and considerations must be examined and compared on an equal basis. Various aspects of each development proposal such as technical feasibility, capital expenditure (CAPEX), operating expenditure (OPEX), environmental impact and assessment, risk assessment, legal requirements, decommissioning costs and issues, profitability (considering lease costs, taxes and royalties, cash flow and sensitivity analysis), lead time to first oil and company objectives in terms of the fields development theme, need to be considered. Another major consideration that plays a part in the development route chosen for an oilfield is whether the field can be considered as a marginal field or not. Marginal fields are typically developed under a minimum CAPEX /OPEX development theme, subject to favourable operating conditions. There are many definitions of what a marginal field is (Milton OSEMEKHIAN EBHOHIMEN 1112841 Page 5 1980). For the purpose of this development plan, a marginal field is defined as a field where the minimum capital expenditure outlay from well appraisal to first oil is considered too high to justify the investment risk of a full scale development platform (Milton 1980).
ii. INTRODUCTION
An oil field development plan is about justifying the business case for a chosen option of development. To be able to do this, all legal, political and technically viable options and their constituent parts and considerations must be examined and compared on an equal basis. Various aspects of each development proposal such as technical feasibility, capital expenditure (CAPEX), operating expenditure (OPEX), environmental impact and assessment, risk assessment, legal requirements, decommissioning costs and issues, profitability (considering lease costs, taxes and royalties, cash flow and sensitivity analysis), lead time to first oil and company objectives in terms of the fields development theme, need to be considered.

Another major consideration that plays a part in the development route chosen for an oilfield is whether the field can be considered as a marginal field or not. Marginal fields are typically developed under a minimum CAPEX /OPEX development theme, subject to favourable operating conditions. There are many marginal definitions of what a field is 1980). For the purpose of this development plan, a marginal field is defined as a field where the minimum capital expenditure outlay from well appraisal to first oil is considered too high to justify the investment risk of a full scale development platform (Milton 1980). Alpha Oil Company Assumptions: Alpha Oil Company is an independent oil producing company with 104 years of experience in offshore exploration and production. It has a worldwide staff level of 80,000 people with a high percentage of highly skilled and experienced workers. The company is a leading light in technological innovation and oilfield implementation of new technologies and has strong industry relationships with oil servicing companies, shipping and banking firms. Its average weighted average cost of capital (WACC) per oilfield is rated low by standard international banking institutions. As a result it is not inhibited from marginal field development. iii. Tantalum Oil field Assumptions 1.1 Tantalum oil field is located under moderate sea conditions at a water depth of 100 metres. The nearest landfall at a distance of 50km does not only have limited infrastructure, it is also a breeding ground for an existing nationalist organisation waging an independence struggle with the central government based at the main town 300km away. The organisation, is blatantly terrorist, and has been known to employ terrorist tactics in the past in its not too successful struggle with the central government. 1.2 The central government maintains a very active and strong naval presence in the continental shelf surrounding this landfall and has promised protection for Alpha Oil Company activities. 1.3 The price of oil (light sweet crude) will not fall below the base price of $65 used in this field development proposal. Current price of Brent blend as at 31/12/2011 is $107.21 (www.oil-price.net 2011) 1.4 All equipment, services and facilities required to develop any development option is readily available for immediate deployment and payment costs are not a problem.