Editor's note: This Global E&P section first appeared in the May-June 2024 issue of Offshore magazine. Click here to view the full issue.
By Jeremy Beckman, London
GULF OF MEXICO
BP and its partners have sanctioned the Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion project in the south-eastern Green Canyon area. The two-well tieback to the Atlantis semisubmersible platform will connect to the existing DC1 subsea manifold.
Talos Energy will produce its 2023 Sunspear discovery in Green Canyon Block 78 via a 12-km (7.5-mi) tieback of a single well to the Prince platform. Subsea 7 will install the flowline in 500 m (1,640 ft) water depth.
SOUTH AMERICA
ExxonMobil has awarded the main the contracts for Whiptail, the sixth deepwater development in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. SBM will construct and install the 250,000 b/d-capacity Jaguar FPSO 20O km (124 mi) from the coast, in 1,630 m (5,348 ft) of water, and will operate and maintain the facility for 10 years post-startup. Seatrium will fabricate and integrate topside modules, mooring and umbilical structures. TechnipFMC will provide the 48 subsea trees, 12 manifolds and associated controls, while Saipem will delegate two of its vessels, Castorone and Constellation, for installation of the subsea production system.
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Petronas and ExxonMobil have made a third discovery in Block 52 off Suriname. Fusaea-1, 170 km (105 mi) offshore and 9 km (5.6 mi) east of the previous Roystonea-1 find, encountered multiple oil and gas-bearing Campanian sandstone intervals. According to Wood Mackenzie, the two accumulations could support an FPSO-based development producing 100,000 b/d. Sloanea, the other proven field on the block, has been undergoing appraisal drilling. The consultants claim that TotalEnergies and APA Corp are also close to sanctioning a cluster FPSO development on Block 58 to the west. Wood Mackenzie estimates Suriname's currently discovered resources from nine deepwater finds to date at over 2.4 Bbl of oil and more than 12.5 tcf of gas.
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Petrobras has proven more oil in the ultra-deepwater Potiguar basin on Brazil’s Equatorial Margin. The Anhangá discovery, drilled on the POT-M-762_R15 concession, 190 km from Fortaleza, encountered oil in Albian turbidite reservoirs. It follows the Pitu Oeste breakthrough well, completed earlier this year on the nearby POT-17. The company aims to drill 16 further wells across the Margin over the next four years.
Perenco has agreed to pay $10 million for Petrobras’ interests in the shallow water Cherne and Bagre fields in the Campos basin, and plans to restart production from the fields’ two platforms which have been mothballed since 2020.
MODEC will perform the FEED for Shell’s Gato do Mato field FPSO in the Santos basin off Brazil. The platform will be moored 250 km (155 mi) offshore in 2,000 m (6,561 ft) of water, with MODEC responsible for the hull and topsides and subsidiary company SOFEC supplying the spread mooring system.
WEST AFRICA
Offshore Republic of Congo, Trident Energy has executed license transactions with two major operators. The company will acquire Chevron Overseas (Congo), gaining operatorship of the Lianzi field and interests in the producing Moho-Bilondo, Nkossa and Nsoko fields. Trident will also take on TotalEnergies’ controlling interest in the permits containing Nkossa/Nsoko, 70 km (43 mi) offshore (current combined production of 15,000 boe/d). In exchange, it will farm down 10% of Chevron’s 31.5% stake to TotalEnergies’, operator of Moho-Bilondo, where two FPUs are producing a total of 100,000 b/d.
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Under two further farm-ins to Africa’s current deepwater hotspot, Namibia, Chevron has agreed to assume an 80% operated interest in the PEL 82 license in the Walvis basin, which contains the light oil Wingat discovery. And Azule Energy, the joint venture between bp and Eni, has negotiated a 42.5% stake in Block 2914A in the Orange basin with current operator Rhino Resources. The first well is due to spud later this year.
NORTHWEST EUROPE
Eni has agreed to merge its UK North Sea upstream business, which it gained through the acquisition of Neptune Energy earlier this year, with Ithaca Energy’s UK offshore portfolio. The combination would create the second largest E&P independent on the UK shelf with production of over 100,000 boe/d, stakes in six of the 10 UK’s largest fields, and reserves and resources of 658 MMboe. Ithaca also has a strong presence in the Shetland area, including the current deepwater Rosebank field development.
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INEOS E&P has approval from the Danish Energy Agency for its revised plan to expand production from the HP/HT Hejre oil and gas field in the Danish North Sea. The project involves installing an unmanned platform module on the existing steel Hejre jacket, producing from three wells that have already been drilled. Production would head through a new 30-km (18.6-mi) multiphase pipeline to INEOS’ Syd Arne platform.
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ONE-Dyas’ NOF-A platform topside was recently loaded out at the HSM Offshore Energy construction yard in Schiedam, the Netherlands. The gas production platform will be the first in the Dutch North Sea fully powered by offshore wind, to be supplied from the nearby Riffgat wind farm.
BLACK SEA/CASPIAN SEA
Turkish Petroleum has expanded the scope of the Subsea Integration Alliance’s contract for the phase 2a development of the deepwater Sakarya gas field offshore northern Turkey to include installation of the floating production unit. Alliance member Subsea 7 will install and integrate the risers and mooring systems to the FPU. Phase 2, due to be completed by 2028, entails drilling 26 new wells to raise production capacity by a further 30 MMcf/d.
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The new Azeri Central East (ACE) platform is now in full operations mode at the bp-operated Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field offshore Azerbaijan. The 48-slot production, drilling and quarters facility, positioned between the Central Azeri and East Azeri platforms in 137 m (450 ft) of water, can process up to 100,000 b/d of oil. Production should rise steadily as two more wells come onstream later this year.
MIDDLE EAST
Al Yasat Petroleum, a joint venture between ADNOC and CNPC, has produced first oil from the offshore Belbazem block, 120 km (75 mi) north-west of Abu Dhabi City. The concession, which contains the Belbazem, Umm Al Salsal and Umm Al Dholou fields, with the development connected to facilities at the nearby Sata Al Razboot field operated by ADNOC Offshore.
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QatarEnergy has agreed to join ExxonMobil as a partner in the ultra-deepwater Cairo and Masry exploration blocks offshore northern Egypt, both awarded in early 2023. Pending government approvals, QatarEnergy will take a 40% share in both blocks.
ASIA-PACIFIC
TotalEnergies is set to take full ownership of SapuraOMV Upstream by paying $530 million to Sapura Upstream Assets for its 50% share in the Malaysian joint venture. The other partner, OMV, agreed to sell its share to TotalEnergies in January. The main assets are operated interests in blocks SK 408 and SK310 offshore Sarawak, and gas production (last year) of around 500 MMcf/d, all exported to Petronas’s Bintulu LNG complex. Output will rise further once the current Jerun gasfield development comes onstream in SK408 later in the year.
Hibiscus Oil & Gas has discovered oil in the Bunga Aster prospect in the PM3 PSC offshore Peninsular Malaysia, the well encountering a potential oil column of up to 46 m (151 ft). It follows last year’s Bunga Lavatera discovery in the same permit, drilled from the Bunga Orkid-D platform.
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Mitsui Oil Exploration Co (MOECO) and its Vietnamese partners have taken FID on the Block B integrated gas development, 330 km (205 mi) offshore Vietnam. The facilities will provide production capacity of 490 MMcf/d, exported through a pipeline to a gas-fired thermal power plant, with start-up anticipated by the end of 2026.
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CNOOC has delivered first gas from the Bozhong 19-6 field 13-2 Block 5 well site development in the central Bohai Sea off eastern China. Facilities include a wellhead platform with slots for 10 wells, in a water depth of 23 m (75 ft). Production should peal at 5,800 boe/d in 2026.
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Mubadala Energy has made a second large deepwater gas discovery in the South Andaman license, 65 km (40 mi) offshore North Sumatra, Indonesia. Tangkulo, estimated to contain over 2 tcf in an Oligocene sandstone reservoir, followed last year’s Layaran. Partner Harbour Energy previously proved gas nearby in the Timpan prospect. Wood Mackenzie estimates total in-place resources discovered in the area to date at 11 tcf, with potential for the deepwater basin fan play to extend across other blocks.
AUSTRALASIA
Woodside Energy has awarded Wood Australia the concept study for the Greater Sunrise project in the Timor Sea. Wood is assessing requirements for developing, processing and marketing gas and condensate from the Sunrise and Troubadour fields, 450 km (280 mi) north-west of Darwin and 150 km (93 mi) south of Timor-Leste. Options include LNG exports and sales to Australia’s domestic sector.
TechnipFMC has an iEPCI contract from Woodside to supply and install the subsea production system for the Xena infill well that will support production from the Pluto LNG project offshore/onshore north-west Australia. The well will connect to subsea infrastructure delivered previously by TechnipFMC.
