Eldon Ball, Houston
This month’s special report looks at activity offshore West Africa - it’s huge potential, rapid development, and evolving changes.
AsJeremy Beckman, Editor, Europe, points out, Nigeria needs widespread oilfield investment to reach its output target of 4.5 MMb/d by 2012. At the same time, the government wants to scale back its spending commitments.
Under the existing joint venture arrangement, NNPC takes an automatic 60% interest in large-scale development projects. But the government is now leaning towards a production-sharing model, bringing it revenue via taxation. According to Afren’sChief Executive Brian O’Cathain, “the government is in negotiations with the Majors on how to implement that change. We think this process will lead to some form of asset rationalization.” Beckman’s exclusive report begins on page 40.
Addax Petroleum has grown its position offshore Nigeria from a base of about 8,000 b/d in 1998 to the largest independent oil producer in Nigeria with an average so far this year of 80,000. How did they do it? I taskedJean Claude Gandur, Addax Petroleum’s president and chief executive officer, about their growth strategy, corporate culture, and plans for expansion. See his responses, beginning on page 36.
Petrobras’ plans for the GoM
In September, Petrobras indicated that it was investing $12.1 billion in the US during the period 2007-2011 in “consolidating its position as one of the leading players in the ultra deepwaters of the Gulf of Mexico, benefiting from its deepwater expertise and technology developed offshore Brazil.”
With the company firming up plans to install the first FPSO in the US Gulf of Mexico,Managing Editor David Paganie sat down with Renato Tadeu Bertani, president of Petrobras America Inc., to talk about the company’s plans for moving ahead in the GoM. His interview begins on page 76.
Plan now to attend DOT
The 18th AnnualDeep Offshore Technology International Conference & Exhibition offers a line-up of innovative technology solutions and lessons learned to promote exploration, development, and production of oil and gas in deep and ultra deepwater basins around the world.
DOT has earned its recognition as the leading forum for real-world project examples from frontier areas, marginal field developments, flowlines and pipelines, and risk and reliability, among many other topics, through its commitment to selecting high-quality papers to anchor the conference.
From Nov. 28-30, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, three tracks of presentations will run concurrently: floaters/construction; subsea/flow assurance; and well construction/risk.
For a preview of the technology, check the specialDOT Technology Preview section beginning on page 48. It presents a preview of selected papers from each of the DOT tracks, only a sampling from the more than 90 presentations included in the conference program.
This year special emphasis has been placed on the topic of well construction. The closing session will present thoughts on attracting new talent in sufficient numbers to keep pace with the attrition associated with an aging workforce.
All electric subsea tree
The production scheme chosen by Total E&P Nederland BV and its partners to develop the K5F North Sea gas field consists of two subsea production installations. What’s different about them is that the installations will feature all-electric subsea trees and the accompanying electric control system from Cameron.
The new electric subsea production system, known as CameronDC, is a result of Cameron addressing the concerns of operators regarding equipment reliability and functionality, and issues related to projects in deeper waters and longer distance step-out wells. Electric technology has some inherent and distinct advantages in its simplicity and in its condition-monitoring potential.Technology Editor Gene Kliewer reports on the new system, beginning on page 98.
