Azule Energy takes FID on Greater PAJ project offshore Angola
Azule Energy and partners Equinor and Sonangol E&P have taken FID on the $5.1-billion Greater PAJ development project in ultradeepwater blocks 31 and 31/21, which are 200 km offshore Angola.
Water depths will run down to 2,000 m or some 6,562 ft.
According to Azule, a joint venture between bp and Eni, this will be the country’s first integrated cross-block development, with first oil expected during the first half of 2029.
The five fields encompass the Palas, Astraea and Juno fields in Block 31 and Urano and Dione in Block 31/21.
Plans call for 17 development wells to be connected to a new FPSO with a nameplate oil production capacity of 95,000 bbl/d, and a gas export capacity of 70 MMbbl/d.
The gas will head through a new offshore pipeline to the onshore Angola LNG plant, via a tie-in to Block 31’s in-place gas export network.
Saipem will perform transportation and installation (T&I) services under a US$1-billion contract. Its scope of work covers engineering, fabrication and T&I of about 180 km of rigid pipelines and subsea structures in water depths of up to 2,000 m; and T&I of 38 km of flexible flowlines and jumpers and 54 km of umbilicals.
Fabrication will take place at Saipem’s Ambriz yard in Angola, with the construction vessels FDS and Castorone managing the offshore installation campaign.
TechnipFMC will design and manufacture flexible flowlines and risers to connect wells to the new floating platform.
About the Author
Bruce Beaubouef
Senior Lead Reporter / Managing Editor
Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.