Offshore staff

READING, UK – Burullus Gas Co. has started gas production from Phase 8a of the West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) deepwater project offshore Egypt.

According to partner BG Group, the $1 billion scheme will add nine subsea wells to the existing subsea infrastructure, 90 km (56 mi) offshore the Nile Delta.

BG CEO Sir Frank Chapman said progress had been “excellent…especially in light of the civil unrest earlier in the year.”

In Brazil’s pre-salt Santos basin, BG says one current producer on the ultra-deepwater Lula field is currently delivering more than 35,000 boe/d, and further wells should be onstream by year end.

Construction of the next two FPSOs for a series of fields operated by Petrobras in the basin (with BG as partner) is around 70% complete, and letters of intent have been signed for the supply, charter, and operation of two further 150,000 b/d floaters.

One will be deployed on block BM-S-9 (Guará area), with delivery slated for 3Q 2014. The other will be deployed on block BM-S-11 (Cernambi area), and should be delivered later that year.

The initial 13 FPSO vessels for BM-S-9 and BM-S-11, with combined production capacity of 2.3 MMboe/d, all have been committed, BG adds, and are all due onstream by 2017.

In October, an extended well test started on Carioca North East using the Dynamic Producer FPSO. Production has reached 15,000 b/, constrained by facilities.

In a further development, BG Group has secured a 3,000-sq m (32,291-sq ft) site in the Technological Park at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University, which it says will be built up to deliver Group-wide technological development.

10/25/2011