FAR Ltd. has upgraded its contingent resources estimates for Cairn Energy’s SNE oilfield offshore Senegal in West Africa, and led the firm to suggest a standalone floating production and storage offloading (FPSO) development for the field.
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Map from FAR. |
Cairn had previously assessed the minimum economic field size for the SNE project to be approximately 200 MMbbl. However, through an independent study from RISC Operations, FAR relevealed that SNE contains an estimated 348 MMbbl of 1C (P90), 641 MMbbl of 2C (P50), 1.128 billion bbl of 3C (P10) of contingent resources, which represent a 14% increase in 2C, and a 26% jump in 1C estimates.
With the successful completion of the 2015/2016 appraisal drilling program (SNE-2, SNE-3 BEL-1 and SNE-4), the project is at the pre front-end engineering and design stage and development planning is underway, FAR said. FAR has completed pre-engineering studies with engineering consultancy AMOG and has prepared an SNE field concept development plan based on its upgraded P50 (2C) contingent resource estimate of 641 MMbbl.
According to FAR, a standalone FPSO development is envisaged with topside expansion capability for later SNE field development phases and satellite tie-backs. The company’s development concept represents a phased development approach with a plateau production rate of 140,000 b/d and first oil in 2022.
FAR has based its development concept on 70-80 development wells through field life (50% producers, 50% injectors) with an average estimated ultimate recovery per well of some 8 MMbbl, based on the total of wells. FAR’s first phase development requires 20-25 wells.
The company expects further appraisal drilling to start in late 2016, and will target understanding the connectivity of the upper reservoirs and help optimize and scale the development.
“The focus is on optimizing and scaling a first phase development project,” Cath Norman, FAR managing director said. “The project is well positioned to benefit from cost deflation. Development and operating costs estimates for the concept development are relatively low, making the break-even oil price very competitive in the current oil price environment at less than US$40 per barrel.”
The SNE production sharing contract (PSC) includes the offshore exploration blocks Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore and Rufisque, which cover about 7490sq km. The PSC includes the SNE and FAN deepwater oil discoveries.
In late-August, FAR announced the company was exercising its pre-emption rights over the proposed sale of ConocoPhillips interests in Senegal to Woodside Petroleum, a $430 million deal that was struck in July.
In March, Cairn increased its resource estimate on the major SNE discovery by 20%, with potential for it to increase further, following successful appraisal work. Cairn estimated that the field, also called Shelf Edge, contain P50, or 2C, resources at 385 MMbbl, up 20%. The field was listed as potentially the largest oil discovery in 2014 by Wood Mackenzie.
Currently, operator Cairn hold 40% interest in the three blocks offshore Senegal. Partners include ConocoPhillips (35%), FAR (15%), and Petrosen, (10%).
Read more:
FAR exercises Senegal pre-emption rights
Conoco sells Senegal business to Woodside
Cairn eyes another 500 MMbbl off Senegal
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