DOF Subsea UK has started work on two major construction projects off West Africa for Italy’s Saipem.
DOF Subsea is supplying its 107.1m-long DSV Skandi Singapore and project crew, along with project management and technical support; specialist survey services; and ROV services to assist Saipem’s development of the Nene Marine and Litchendjili Marine fields and the Congo River Crossing (CRX) Pipeline projects.
Eni, Saipem’s parent company, is active in the West African presalt plays and is the area’s leading natural gas producer. Most recently, on 14 February, Eni announced that it discovered significant wet gas and light oil accumulation in the Nene Marine 3 exploration well. On the tail of those results, Eni estimated that the Nene Marine field, located in Marine XII Block just 11km offshore Congo, contains around 1.2 billion bo and 30Bcm of gas.
Nene Marine 3 is 2km from the discovery well Nene Marine 1, and 4km from Nene Marine 2. Combined with Litchjendilj Marine field, Eni estimates the two neighbors to have about 2.5 billion boe in place.
Eni serves as operator of Marine XII Block (65%). Its partners are New Age (25%) and state oil company Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (10%).
The CRX Pipeline is designed to transport up to 250Mcf/d of natural gas from the Chevron-operated Angola blocks 0 and 14 to the company's Angola LNG plant in Soyo. The plant can process 1.1Bcf/d, and Chevron says it is the world’s first LNG plant that sources associated gas.
The development plans for the US$2 billion CRX Pipeline project include 140km of pipeline routed under the Congo River subsea canyon. Commissioning and startup of the pipeline are planned for 2015.
Image of the Skandi Singapore from DOF Subsea.
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