West Africa

• Equatorial Guinea [37,648 bytes]
• Nigeria [132,619 bytes]

Equitorial Guinea's Zafiro will produce 100,000 b/d

Mobil is looking ahead to produce 100,000 b/d oil from the Zafiro Field, offshore Equitorial Guinea, by the end of 1997. Mobil said that they are reviewing plans with partner United Meridien to exceed the 80,000 b/d previously scheduled for the end of the year.

The field, located in 200-meter water depth just two km southeast of Elf's OML 102 in the Nigerian waters, was put in production in August 1996. Today, eight months later, the field is producing at approximately 46,000 b/d, well ahead of the planned level of 40,000 b/d for this time.

Eight wells are now producing in Zafiro, and Mobil expects to bring a further seven on stream offshore Equatorial Guinea before the end of the year. These will include the Jade 2 well, which confirmed the discovery of the Jade Field in March. Construction activities underway or planned in the Zafiro Field include the installation of production templates, which will enable oil to be collected from up to four separate wells and carried through a single pair of flowlines to the floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), and the addition of facilities on the FPSO itself.

"The performance of our existing wells and the recent Rubi, Jade, and Serpentina discoveries are good news for Equatorial Guinea's offshore oil industry", said Art Green, general manager of Mobil Equatorial Guinea. "The operation's experience gained since start-up last August is enabling us to enhance well completion design and optimize forward development plans."

Nigeria's Ukpokiti changes shareholder

Tuskar Resources, the Dublin-based oil and gas exploration and production company, has acquired the net production revenue interest of Camac International (Nigeria) in the Ukpokiti Field, located on Oil Mining Lease 108, offshore Nigeria. The field, located about 15 miles offshore, is currently under fast-track development with first oil production expected at the beginning of July this year. With reserves of approximately 32 million bbl, it is anticipated to reach peak production of 20,000 b/d later this year with an expected production life of seven years.

The field is operated by Conoco Energy (Nigeria), a subsidiary of DuPont with a 40% working interest on behalf of Express Petroleum Gas Company, a Nigerian company with a 57.5% working interest, and Camac International (Nigeria), with a 2.5% working interest.

Tuskar Resources has the right to acquire Camac's production interest in the Ukpokiti Field which equates to a 0.833% net revenue interest free of all production and operating costs. The company, in concert with Allied Petroleum, a subsidiary of Camac, is scheduled to drill its first development well on the Obe Oil Field in the OML 110 (formerly OPL 453) concession area in the second quarter of this year.

Tuskar Resources and Allied both hold 40% working interest and are joint technical operators of OML 110.

Rig Movements:

The tender rig Al Baraka 01, rated to 650 ft water depth, is stacked ready in Angola, ready to move to the Middle East for 18 months from September. The rig is one of the four tenders involved in a recent buying binge by Pride Petroleum Services from the Foramer stock. Others are Alligator (rated to 330 ft water depth); Baracuda (rated to 330 ft water depth), and Cormorant (rated to 300 ft water depth). Alligator, Baracuda, and Cormorant are all doing workover jobs for Elf Angola in Pambi and Pacassa Fields.

Foramer has also sold the semisub South Sea Driller (rated to 1000 ft water depth) to Pride Petroleum Services. South Sea Driller recently drilled Okwori South -3 for Ashland Oil in Nigeria. Its next assignment is for Soekor in South Africa (295 days with 130 days option) starting from mid-September 1997. All these rigs continue to be operated by Foramer.

In a related development, Pride Petroleum is talking to Noble Drilling about purchasing the jackup NNO-1 ( rated to 45 feet water depth).The rig is drilling Cross River-1 for Brasoil in the eastern Niger Delta, offshore Nigeria.

Mobil again considering operations cut-back

Mobil is in consideration to cut back Nigerian drilling operations due to repeated failure of Nigerian National Petroleum to meet its cash call obligations. Although a final decision is yet to be made, Mobil could decide to sublet their rigs without terminating the contracts until the situation is resolved. The company has seven jackups in the area on contract and if it decides to cut back, they could sublet the Randolf Yost to Chevron and possibly the Glomar VIII until the end of 1997.

Mossgas operations changing hands

Soekor (South Africa) is in negotiations to take over operations of a platform and undersea gas pipelines owned by Mossgas. Under the arrangement, Soekor would concentrate on oil and natural gas exploration, thereby consolidating its upstream capacity, and Mossgas will focus on producing and marketing synthetic products derived from gas enabling the company to concentrate on its core businesses. Pending government approval, the agreement would transfer Mossgas' F-A and E-M licenses to Soekor as well as the platform and pipeline to the refinery. A decision is expected some time this year.

Shell Nigeria looking at base

Shell Nigeria is seriously considering the establishment of a large operational base offshore Niger Delta, as a respite from the troubles from the numerous communities in its land operations. Such a base will be fed by significant oil fields offshore.

At the moment, appraisal/development drilling is going on in the Bonga Field, located in 1,100 metres water depth in the deep offshore tract OPL 212. Bonga Field, discovered last year, is estimated to hold up to 400 million bbl of oil recoverable. Shell hopes to bring the field on stream by the year 2003, although there have not been word regarding the type of facility for the production.

If everything goes according to plan, Bonga will be Shell's first offshore oil production. Another candidate for Shell's foray into offshore in Nigeria is EA field, located in 50 meters water depth in the Western Niger Delta, 90 km northeast of Bonga Field.

Despite running the largest oilfield operation in Nigeria (producing half of Nigeria's 2 million b/d), Shell is essentially a landlocked company. But in the last five years, the company has been confronted by many agitations by communities in the numerous creek areas. The latest crisis erupted when villages seized oil flow stations on March 22 to protest against relocation of their local government council from the Ijaw area. One hundred and twenty-seven of Shell staff were held hostage and only released after delicate negotiations.

Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.