NORTH/CENTRAL AMERICA
Early front-end work has started on detailed engineering for Talos Energy’s Zama field development in block 7 offshore Mexico. The company plans two fixed production platforms in 168 m (550 ft) of water, thought to be the deepest for any installation to date in the Mexican sector, handling a combined 150,000 b/d of oil plus associated gas.
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Royal Boskalis Offshore may have started work on connecting a floating storage and regasification unit off El Salvador to an onshore power plant, on behalf of Energía del Pacífico. The scope includes construction of a 2-km (1.2 mi) gas pipeline connection and mooring of the vessel via an 11-anchor spread. The facilities should be operational by the end of 2021.
SOUTH AMERICA
ExxonMobil has brought onstream Liza Phase 1, Guyana’s first offshore oilfield development. Production through the FPSO Liza Destiny, moored 190 km (118 mi) offshore in the Stabroek block, should build to a peak of 120,000 b/d over the next few months: the vessel is connected to four subsea drill centers supporting 17 wells. The Stabroek partners have made a further oil discovery with the Mako-1 well, 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Liza in 1,620 m (5,315 ft) of water.
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Apache Corp. and new partner Total have confirmed a potentially major oil discovery in block 58 offshore Suriname. The drillship Noble Sam Croft drilled the Maka Central-1 well in around 1,000 m (3,281 ft) of water, finding over 37.5 m (123 ft) of net light oil and gas-rich condensate pay in Upper Cretaceous Campanian, Santonian, and Turonian intervals. Apache said it had identified seven distinct play types and over 50 other prospects within the thermally mature play fairway.
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Late last month the drillship Stena Forth was due to spud Karoon Energy’s first well in block Z-38 in the Tumbes basin offshore Peru. The targeted 256-MMbbl Marina structure shows prospectivity in multiple levels. Drilling should take around 60 days to complete, according to partner Tullow Oil.
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Petrobras has completed the sale to Petronas of 50% of the E&P rights to the Tartaruga field in the BM-C-36 concession and Module III of the Espadarte field, both in the Campos basin offshore Brazil. The Tartaruga Verde field, which came onstream in mid-2018, currently produces 103,000 b/d of oil and 1.2 MMcm/d of gas. Module III, due to be developed through the Tartaruga Verde facilities, should deliver first oil in 2021.
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ION Geophysical has started re-imaging 22,000 sq km (8,494 sq mi) of 3D seismic data over frontier deepwater blocks in the Punta del Este and Pelotas basins offshore Uruguay. The aim of the Tannat project is to help clarify the exploration perspective of the conjugate margin with Namibia, across the Atlantic.
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Houston-based Navitas Petroleum is set to farm into 30% of the Sea Lion oil and gas project in the offshore North Falkland basin, after signing a Heads of Terms. Assuming regulatory approvals, operator Premier Oil and existing partner Rockhopper will look to move the development forward.
WEST AFRICA
Woodside Energy and its partners have approved the Phase 1 development of the Sangomar field offshore Senegal. Main contracts have now been confirmed, with MODEC to supply the FPSO by early 2023. This will have an oil processing capacity of 100,000 b/d and will be stationed in 238 m (780 ft) of water, 100 km (62 mi) south of Dakar, using an external turret mooring system provided by SOFEC. Two Diamond Offshore drillships will drill and complete the 23 subsea wells, with the Subsea Integration Alliance of Subsea 7 and OneSubsea responsible for the SURF and associated subsea production systems. Phase 1 is targeting 231 MMbbl of oil from Sangomar’s lower, less complex reservoirs.
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TGS and PetroData have been performing Nigeria’s first regional multi-client multi-beam and seafloor sampling study, spanning around 80,000 sq km (30,888 sq mi) in the offshore Niger Delta. The study will include close to 150 seabed cores: TGS previously covered much of the area with a 2D seismic survey that was reprocessed in 2019. Final results should be available in 2Q 2020.
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The drillship Maersk Voyager was due to start a 240-day, three-well contract last month for Total offshore southwest Africa, comprising one well each in blocks 32 and 48 off Angola and another offshore Namibia. According to Maersk Drilling, the wildcat well on block 48 will establish a new world-record water depth of 3,628 m (11,903 ft), beating the 3,400 m (11,155 ft) dry hole drilled by the Maersk Venturer offshore Uruguay in 2016 for the same operator.
Total has also signed new agreements for three other Angolan concessions. One gives the company operatorship of blocks 20/11 and 21/09 in the central and south-central Kwanza basin, in water depths ranging from 300-1,800 m (984-5,905 ft). Drilling to date has led to the Bicura, Cameia, Golfinho and Mavinga discoveries, and the company and partners Sonangol and BP will seek to build a development hub. In addition, the company and co-venturers Equinor, ExxonMobil, and BP have extended production licenses for prolific deepwater block 17 through 2045. They plan to drill two exploration wells this year.
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Angola’s state concessionaire ANPG has awarded Eni operatorship of frontier block 28 under the country’s first international competitive bid round, which was focused on the Namibe-Bengule basin. The location is in 1,000-2,500 m (3,281-8,202 ft) water depth. Eni has also brought onstream last year’s Agogo oil discovery in block 15/96, via a 15-km (9.3-mi) subsea tieback to the FPSO N’Goma that serves the West Hub fields.
BLACK SEA/CASPIAN SEA
Gazprom has started gas exports to Turkey through the TurkStream pipeline system in the Black Sea. The two parallel pipelines, with a combined capacity of 31.5 bcm/yr, extend from the Russkaya compressor station close to Anapa on the Russian coast to the Kiyikoy settlement on the Turkish shoreline. Pipelay, performed by Allseas over 15 months, included a 32-in. section in a record water depth of 2,200 m (7,218 ft), Gazprom said.
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BP has started exploration drilling on its Shafag-Asiman block, 125 km (78 mi) southeast of Baku in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. The SAX01 well, drilled by the semisub Heydar Aliyev, has a planned TD of 7,000 m (22,966 ft), with the program set to last around nine months. Water depths across the concession range from 650-800 m (2,122-2,625 ft). State oil company SOCAR is BP’s sole partner.
MIDDLE EAST
Egypt’s government has granted ExxonMobil 100% stakes in two offshore exploration blocks. The 4,856-sq km (1.2-million acre) North Marakia is off the north coast in the Herodotus basin in the Mediterranean Sea. North East El Amriya extends across 2,197 sq km (543,000 acres) in the Nile Delta. Seismic acquisition should start later this year.
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North Oil Co. has contracted Sembcorp Marine to construct two wellhead platforms for Al-Shaheen, Qatar’s largest offshore oilfield. These will be bridge-linked to existing production facilities and should enter service by December 2021.
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National Iranian Oil Co. has commissioned Petropars to perform engineering and basic design for the Farzad B gas development offshore Iran in the Persian Gulf.
ASIA/PACIFIC
Woodside Energy is progressing Myanmar’s first ultra-deepwater gas development, focused on the Shwe Yee Htun discovery. The company plans up to 10 wells in 2,000-2,300 m (6,562-7,546 ft) of water, to be drilled in two phases and connected via a subsea export system up the continental shelf to a process platform in shallow water. From there the gas would head through a 240-km (149-mi) subsea pipeline to a riser platform close to Total’s Yadana offshore complex for onward delivery to Myanmar and Thailand.
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Sabah Shell Petroleum has committed to a second phase development of the Malikai deepwater field offshore Sabah, Malaysia. The company plans to tie two new oil producer and four water injector wells through the Malikai TLP, using the same single-combo riser system adopted for Phase 1. Sapura Drilling Asia’s semisubmersible tender-assist rig Sapura Esperanza will drill the wells.
JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Malaysia) has produced first oil from the Layang field in block 10 offshore Sarawak. Gas production had started in 2017. The FPSO will also likely host oil from a development of the Helang field in the same block.
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CNOOC has a busy year ahead with plans to bring onstream 10 new projects in Chinese waters. They include the Penglai 19-3 oil field block 4 adjustment/Penglai 19-9 oil field phase II; the Liuhua 29-1 gas field development; and the Liuhua 16-2 oil field 20-2 oil field joint development.
MODEC subsidiary SOFEC expects to complete integration by the end of March of a new turret into a replacement floating storage and offloading vessel serving the Lufeng 13-2 oil field in the South China Sea. This will be connected to an existing submerged buoy. Penglai Jutal Offshore Engineering Heavy Industries’ yard in Penglai constructed the turret system.
AUSTRALASIA
Perth-based Searcher Seismic has completed a prospectivity study over the Gulf of Papua offshore Papua New Guinea, where to date 27 exploration wells have been drilled in shallow water. The new geoscience data-set, the company claims, is the most wide-ranging of any over the region and includes 77,910 km (48,411 mi) of new/reprocessed 2D seismic; 1,795 sq km (693 sq mi) of reprocessed 3D data; airborne, magnetic and gradiometry data.
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Shell has described its recent Bratwurst gas/condensate discovery in the AC/P64 permit off northwest Australia as “significant.” The company sees potential for a tieback development through its Prelude FLNG vessel, 160 km (99 mi) to the southwest.
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Santos hopes to take a front-end engineering design decision during 2Q on its Dorado oil field development in the Bedout basin offshore Western Australia. The current preferred concept is an FPSO and wellhead platform, with the initial phase of the project focused on oil and condensate followed by a later gas export phase.
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Beach Energy has agreed to acquire a 30% interest from OMV in the PEP50119 exploration permit in the Great South basin offshore New Zealand. The partners have lined up the semisub COSLProspector to drill the Tawhaki prospect early this year. •
