Studies Start on Senegal Offshore Project
Xodus has secured two environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) contracts for projects offshore Senegal.
These are for the Cairn Energy-operated Rufisque Offshore, Sangomar Offshore and Sangomar Deep Offshore blocks.
Xodus’ environmental team will undertake a study for drilling activities in the blocks and perform an ESIA for the Phase 1 development, based on an FPSO over the deepwater SNE oil field in the Sangomar Deep Offshore.
In addition, Xodus’ Technical Safety and Risk division will work with the environmental team on safety studies, and the company will work with its in-country partner, Earth Systems, to assist Capricorn and Woodside to ensure compliance with Senegalese environmental law.
Transfer of operatorship to Woodside for the development phase is due to take place next year with Cairn continuing exploration activities on the acreage.
The joint venture plans to submit an evaluation report and exploitation plan to the government of Senegal in 2018. The front-end engineering and design will also likely to start next year with a final investment decision targeted before the end of 2018.
Vietnam Drilling Update Issued
SOCO International has issued updates on its development and exploration programs offshore Vietnam.
The company and its partners received formal approval for the updated TGT full field development plan from the Vietnamese government in February.
This is said to be a ‘dynamic’ plan outlining development options beyond 2017, based on prediction scenarios drawn from the 2016 TGT reserve assessment report and the 2015 TGT geological model and dynamic simulation.
Approval provides for up to 18 additional wells, with locations to be defined at a later date, and installation of new processing equipment on the H1 wellhead platform (WHP). The aim is to arrest and then reverse the field’s production decline.
Development drilling started last fall with two infill wells from the H4-WHP. Two more infill wells were added to the program for execution during 2017.
In March, the PVD VI jackup resumed operations from the H1-WHP, drilling and completing the TGT-30P well, targeting the Miocene and Oligocene reservoir horizons in the crestal part of the H1.1 fault block.
This well is currently producing around 2,500 boe/d, with an as-predicted 40% water cut.
Australia LNG FPSO in Place
The Ichthys LNG project’s FPSO has been moored in 250 m (820 ft) of water, 220 km (137 mi) offshore Western Australia, according to operator INPEX.
The 336-m (1,102-ft) long FPSO, named Ichthys Venturer, is designed for 40 years of operations without dry dock. It was connected to 21 pre-installed mooring chains, weighing more than 15,000 metric tons, in the Ichthys field.
The FPSO has been designed to process and store most of the condensate delivered from the Ichthys LNG project’s central processing facility, Ichthys Explorer, before periodically offloading it to carriers for export to market.
The Ichthys Venturer is moored 3.5 km (2.2 mi) away from the Ichthys Explorer. Hook-up and commissioning are under way.
-Storms Impact Petrobras’ Overseas Production
Petrobras’ oil and gas production last month totaled 2.72 MMboe.
Output from the company’s oil fields in Brazil averaged 2.11 MMb/d, in line with volumes for July.
Presalt production was 2.5% lower; however, due mainly to the scheduled stoppage of the FPSOs Cidade de Maricá and Cidade de Itaguaí at the Lula field in the presalt Santos basin.
The company’s oil production from overseas fields fell 4.9% to an average of 62,000 b/d, and gas output from these fields was 7.2% lower at 7.8 MMcm/d.
Shutting in of producing fields in the US Gulf of Mexico during the passage of Hurricane Harvey was the main factor.
-North Sea Ekofisk Reaches Gas Export Milestone
ConocoPhillips Norge has commemorated 40 years of gas deliveries from the Ekofisk field in the southern Norwegian North Sea.
First gas traveling south through the offshore Norpipe line reached the NorSea Gas Terminal at Emden on German’s north coast on Sept. 17, 1977.
This was Norway’s debut as a gas exporter to the European market.
In the 1970s, bringing the oil and gas to shore in Norway was not technically feasible, the company says, mainly because the Norwegian Trench was too deep to cross with a pipeline at that time, so the end station for Norpipe’s 443-km (275-mi), 36-in. gas line was sited at Emden.
Construction started during the fall of 1973. Until the terminal was opened four years later, gas from Ekofisk was re-injected into the reservoir.
In 1973, Norwegian Phillips Group signed the first gas sales agreement for the Norwegian shelf with a consortium comprising German’s Ruhrgas, Belgium’s Distrigaz, Gaz de France, and Gasunie in the Netherlands.
The new pipeline was the world’s longest welded pipe structure, with two compressor platforms for pressure support.
ConocoPhillips operated both pipeline and the terminal for a time, then briefly in the Gasport joint venture with Statoil. Over the last decade, state-owned Gassco has operated the pipeline and the terminal in Emden on behalf of Gassled.
In May 2016, a new reception terminal opened in Emden, designed to receive and distribute gas from fields in the Greater Ekofisk Area and others offshore Norway that export their gas through Norpipe.
To date more than 250 bcm of dry gas have passed through the Norpipe system to Emden.