Offshore staff
Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary, Esso Exploration Angola (block 15) Ltd. started production of the $3.5-billion Kizomba B project offshore Angola. The project will develop 1 Bbbl from the Kissanje and Dikanza fields in 3,280 ft water depth more than 200 mi offshore.
The Kizomba B project, which includes the deployment of the world's largest FPSO, with storage capacity of 2.2 MMbbl, came onstream more than five months ahead of schedule. To accomplish this milestone, ExxonMobil incorporated its "design one, build multiple" approach that captured learnings and synergies from the Kizomba A project, a nearly identical development in the same block that brought the Hungo and Chocalho fields onstream less than a year ago.
With combined estimated recoverable resources of 2 Bbbl, Kizomba A and Kizomba B, along with the Xikomba project, which began producing in 2003, are expected to reach a peak output of more than 550,000 b/d by year-end.
"Kizomba A and B are benchmark projects that have set world-record cycle times with the lowest unit development costs for projects of this size and complexity," Rex Tillerson, president of Exxon Mobil Corp. says. According to Tillerson, Kizomba A was brought online in a record 36 months, and Kizomba B beat that record with a startup in only 31 months.
Like Kizomba A, the Kizomba B project encompassed a contracting and construction effort that spanned four continents and involved activities in more than a dozen nations. More than $1 billion has been spent on local Angolan goods and services including contracts for in-country fabrication, logistics support, training, and development of Angolan personnel.
ExxonMobil and its co-venturers have announced 38 discoveries in Angola, seventeen of which are on block 15, a world-class development with the potential to recover about 4.5 Bboe.
07/18/05
