Ophir Energy has lined up projects for the year, and is ready to spud a well offshore Cote d’Ivoire, in addition to reaching a final investment decision (FID) for the Fortuna FLNG Project, offshore Equatorial Guinea.
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Image from Ophir. |
“All activities are now focused on finding or developing hydrocarbons at the lowest cost and monetizing promptly and swiftly; thereby maximizing the margin realized for shareholders,” says Nick Cooper, Ophir CEO. “We are looking for 2017 to deliver material milestones.”
Cote d’Ivoire
Offshore the Ivory Coast, the Ayame-1X exploration well has matured to drill-ready, and will spud in Q2 2017, targeting 234 MMbo of gross mean prospective resource with a 23% geological chance of success.
“I am pleased to say that we are now returning to operated exploration drilling. Preparations for the Ayame-1X well in Côte d’Ivoire started in 2016 to be ready for an expected spud in May 2017,” says Cooper. “This would represent Ophir’s first deepwater operated well in almost three years.”
The well will be drilled by the Seadrill West Saturn rig and the gross cost is expected to be US$30 million. It is a stratigraphic prospect testing an extension of a proven petroleum system in the adjacent block and the main risk is trap effectiveness.
Equatorial Guinea
Ophir anticipates to reach the FID for the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in mid-2017.
According to Ophir, Fortuna is expected to unlock 345 MMboe for monetization.
“Subject to the volume of gas we choose to term up, this could treble our Group 2P reserves in the process. Plans to sweat our Asian assets have the potential to monetize up to a further 80 MMboe over the next three years,” says Cooper.
Cooper says that Ophir will not invest more than $120 million of the $2 billion of capital expenditure required to get to first gas. The company does expect to generate a return of over 5x on the investment.
“We expect to issue a shareholder circular during Q2 2017 with FID remaining on schedule for mid-2017,” says Cooper.
In November 2016, Ophir signed a shareholders’ agreement with OneLNG – a joint venture between Golar LNG and Schlumberger – to form a new joint venture to finance and develop the Fortuna project.
“Since announcing the JV in November 2016 we have made good progress against the remaining milestones. The umbrella agreement between the Fortuna JV and the government of Equatorial Guinea is expected to be signed during Q1 2017. This defines the legal and fiscal framework for the project,” says Cooper
Tanzania
According to Cooper, Ophir now has line of sight on its biggest potential monetization step since the Tanzania partial divestment in 2014.
“It has been a long, difficult road but we are firmly on track for a mid-2017 FID, which will monetize approximately 345 MMboe of 2C resource. This will be one of a handful of global FIDs of a green-field LNG project in 2017,” says Cooper.
After completing the final exploration commitment wells on Blocks 1 and 4 in late 2016, the Minister of Energy awarded an extension of Block 1 for a further three and a half years to provide sufficient time to complete pre-FEED and FEED ahead of investment approval. An extension for Block 4 is expected later in 2017.
Bualuang
In 2017, Ophir plans to complete a small infill drilling program consisting of two development wells, offshore Bualuang, Thailand.
“This will see old well stock recycled to target new locations with the goal to grow production by around 1400 b/d,” says Cooper. “We will also drill a further well targeting prospective resource in the Bualuang field.”
Ophir is in the final technical and commercial analysis stage of the opportunity to expand the production capacity at Bualuang by the installation of a simple, low-cost platform, says Cooper. Additional well slots will enable the targeting of locations to convert prospective and contingent resources to reserves.
“We expect to be in a position to make an FID on the next phase of development in Q2 2017,” says Cooper.
Offshore Indonesia, Ophir completed the Trepang 3D seismic survey in the West Papua IV/Aru licenses, and matured a number of prospects to drill-ready.
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