Editor's note: This Global E&P section first appeared in the September-October 2022 issue of Offshore magazine. Click here to view the full issue.
By Jeremy Beckman, Europe
GULF OF MEXICO
OneSubsea and alliance partner Subsea 7 will supply and install a subsea multiphase boosting system to Kosmos Energy’s Odd Job oilfield, tied back to the Delta House floating production system in Mississippi Canyon Blocks 214 and 215. Associated deliveries will include a topside control system and a 16-mi (25.7-km) integrated power and control umbilical.
Kosmos also expected FID approval for the deepwater Miocene Winterfell discovery in Green Canyon Block 944, operated by an affiliate of Beacon Offshore Energy. Plans call for five wells in the first phase to recover around 100 MMbl from the central Winterfell area.
SOUTH AMERICA
Petrobras has proven gas in the Uchuva prospect in the Tayrona block off Colombia’s northeast coast. Transocean’s semisub Development Driller III drilled the well 32 km (20 mi) from the shore in 830 m (2,723 ft) water depth.
Shell and partner Ecopetrol have confirmed an extension of the 2017 Gorgon gas discovery, 70 km (43.5 mi) from the northern Colombian coast. Their Gorgon-2 appraisal well, in 2,400 m (7,874 ft) of water, was the deepest drilled to date offshore Colombia.
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APA Corp and partners Petronas and CEPSA have made their first oil discovery in Block 53 offshore Suriname. The drillship Noble Gerry de Souza drilled the Baja-1 well in 1,140 m (3,740 ft) of water, encountering light oil in a Campanian interval, down-dip of the same depositional system as the Krabdagu oil discovery to the west in Block 58, where APA is a co-venturer with TotalEnergies.
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ExxonMobil and its partners have maintained their virtually unbroken run of deepwater drilling successes in the Stabroek block off Guyana. Seabob-1 and Kiru-Kiru-1, drilled southeast of the Liza and Payara developments, both encountered good-quality hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone.
Subsea 7 and Van Oord will jointly engineer and install a 190-km (118-mi) subsea pipeline for ExxonMobil’s Gas to Energy project offshore Guyana in water depths of up to 1,450 m (4,757 ft). The pipeline, designed to transport 50 MMcf/d of gas to a planned power plant, will make landfall west of the Demerara River.
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Keppel Shipyard will construct P-80, the ninth FPSO for Petrobras’ Buzios field in the pre-salt Santos basin. It will be one of the largest platforms in Brazilian waters, producing up to 225,000 b/d of oil and processing up to 12 MMcf/d of gas, with over 1.6 MMbbl of crude storage capacity. P-80 will be connected to seven producer and seven injector wells, and should start operating in 2026.
WEST AFRICA
Chariot Energy has signed an agreement with Morocco’s government, securing access for gas from the planned Anchois development offshore western Morocco to the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline. This system, operated by state-owned ONHYM, runs from the east of the country through to Tangiers on the north coast and across the Mediterranean Sea to southern Spain.
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Eni has upped its resource estimate for its deepwater Baleine discovery offshore Cote d’Ivoire following positive results from the second well, Baleine East 1X: this was drilled 5 km (3 mi) east of the Baleine 1X discovery well by the Saipem 12000 in 1,150 m water depth. Eni now assesses in-place volumes at 2.5 Bbl of oil and 3.3 tcf of associated gas. The company and partner Petroci planned a third well, with a view to fast-tracking an early-phase production scheme.
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TotalEnergies and NNPC have brought onstream the Ikike field, 20 km (12.4 mi) offshore in Nigeria’s OML 99 lease. Production, in 20 m (66 ft) water depth, is tied back via a 140-km (87-mi) multiphase pipeline to the Amenam offshore facilities. Ikike should reach plateau output of 50,000 boe/d by the end of 2022.
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Angola’s Non Associated Gas 1 (NAGI) project is going ahead, with gas produced through two new wellhead platforms at the offshore Maboqueiro and Quiluma fields to be sent onshore to the Angola LNG complex in Soyo, starting mid-2026. The New Gas Consortium responsible for the development is led by Azule Energy (the newly formed bp/Eni joint venture company), CABGOC, Sonangol and Total Energies.
Azule Energy has an agreement with Yinson Acacia to reserve the FPSO Nganhurra for the proposed 10-well subsea development of the Astra, Juno and Palsa oilfields in Block 31 offshore Angola. This could lead to the award of a 10-year lease and operate contract for Yinson: the FPSO formerly operated at Woodside’s Enfield project off Western Australia.
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TotalEnergies and its partners in Block 11B/12B off the southern coast of South Africa have submitted an application for a Production Right. They plan to enter a Gas Market Development Period, installing an early production system on the deepwater Luiperd gas-condensate discovery.
NORTH SEA
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TAQA UK has contracted Allseas to remove around 114,000 metric tons (125,663 tons) of topsides and jackets from the Eider Alpha, Tern Alpha, North Cormorant and Cormorant Alpha platforms in the UK northern North Sea, in 150-167 m (492-548 ft) of water. The scope is the largest to date for a single UK decommissioning award, Alllseas claimed. Heavy-lift vessel Pioneering Spirit will start removal operations after 2025.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Saipem will deploy its Castorone and Castor 10 vessels to lay a new 60-km (37-mi), 14-in. gas pipeline for Eni, under a $307-million contract. The pipeline will take production from four wells at the offshore Argo and Cassiopea fields to the Sicilian coast. The Saipem 3000 will install the umbilicals connecting Cassiopea’s wells to the Prezioso platform.
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Eni and TotalEnergies have discovered a second gas field in Block 6 offshore southern Cyprus, following Calypso in 2018. The Cronos-1 well encountered net pay of 260 m (853 ft) within a carbonate reservoir sequence, 160 km (99.4 mi) offshore and in 2,287 m (7,503 ft) of water. Initial analysis suggested 2.5 tcf in place.
MIDDLE EAST
McDermott International has started FEED studies for the offshore/onshore pipelines and power cables for QatarEnergy’s North Field South (NFS) gas development. This is in addition to McDermott’s work concerning the jackets, topsides and pipelines for the North Field Expansion project, awarded earlier this year. The NFS infrastructure, part of the expansion project, will provide gas for two additional LNG trains that will lift Qatar’s total LNG production to 126 MMt/yr.
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ADNOC Offshore has awarded NPCC a $548-million EPC contract for development of the Lower Zakum field offshore Abu Dhabi. The work scope includes construction of a new 85-km (53 mi) subsea pipeline taking gas from the Zakum West Super Complex to Das Island, accommodating an increase in the field’s associated gas production capacity to 700 MMcf/d, as its oil production capacity also rises to 450,000 b/d. The pipeline should start operating in 2025.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Sarawak Shell and Petronas Carigali have committed to the Rosmari-Marjoram gas project offshore Sarawak, Malaysia. Development of the two deepwater fields, 220 km (137 mi) offshore Bintulu, will include a subsea tieback to an unmanned, remotely operated wellhead platform powered by 240 solar panels. Production will head through a 207-km (128.6 mi) sour wet gas offshore pipeline to an onshore plant at Bintulu, connected to the Sarawak grid system. The project should deliver up to 800 MMcf/d, with first gas expected in 2026.
Petronas has approved the South Furious 30 Water Flood Phase 2 development in the North Sabah PSC offshore Malaysia, to boost production and reserves recovery. Plans include drilling six water injectors for pressure and five oil infill wells from a new wellhead platform on the South Furious field, bridge-linked to an existing jacket.
AUSTRALASIA
TotalEnergies and its partners in the Papua LNG project have started first-phase FEED studies for the upstream production facilities. Gas from the onshore Antelope and Elf fields in southeastern Papua New Guinea will be sent through a new offshore/onshore pipeline system to the PNG LNG plant north of Port Moresby, operated by ExxonMobil. An investment decision should follow around the end of next year.
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Santos and its co-venturers in the Barossa development in the Timor Sea have taken FID on the Darwin Pipeline Duplication Project, offshore Australia’s Northern Territory. This will extend the Barossa gas export pipeline to the Darwin LNG complex, duplicating a section of the existing Bayu-Undan to Darwin subsea pipeline, also allowing the latter to be repurposed to support carbon capture and storage. Allseas will lay the pipeline for the duplication project, with first gas planned for the first half of 2025, pending approvals.
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Jadestone Energy has agreed to acquire BP Developments Australia’s 16.67% stake in the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermes (CWLH) oilfields development, part of the North West Shelf Oil Project offshore Western Australia. Three of the fields are currently producing via subsea wells tied back to the Okha FPSO. Jadestone sees potential for infill drilling into unswept oil compartments in the reservoirs to extend the FPSO’s operation beyond 2031.
