Total’s CLOV deepwater oil development offshore Angola in Block 17, began production on schedule, the French company announced on 12 June. The development is expected to reach daily production capacity of 160,000bbl in the coming months.
The project includes 34 wells and eight manifolds connected by 180km of subsea pipelines to an FPSO unit in 1110-1400m water depth.
The start of production marks the fourth producing development in the Total-operated Block 17. Additionally, the start of production reaffirms Total’s decision to disinvest in Angola’s Block 15 earlier this year to allocate more investments partly into Block 17, in which the company believed it had more “material interests.” Working interest in the CLOV development is shared among Total, as operator, with 40%, an Exxon Mobil affiliate company with 20%, Statoil maintaining 23.33%, and BP with 16.67% ownership respectively.
Total said its production from Block 17 offshore Angola will reach 700,000boe/d after bringing the deepwater CLOV development on stream today. State-owned oil company Sonangol is the concessionaire of Block 17. CLOV, which launched in 2010, will produce comingled oils from four fields, Lirio, Violeta, Cravo, and Orquidea, at water depths ranging from 3600ft to 4593ft, respectively. The two oils produced by CLOV are Oligocene, and the highly-viscous Miocene oil, which requires a multiphase pump system for transport and enhanced recovery.
FMC Technologies and Framo Engineering were contracted to supply a helico-axial multiphase pump for the development, marking the first time Total employed the pumps in a subsea environment.
The CLOV FPSO vessel is the fourth major development in the block, which also houses the producing developments Girassol, Dalia, and Pazflor. The 1100ft-long vessel measures 197ft wide, with a storage capacity of 1.8MMbo. Construction of the vessel was carried out by Korean shipbuilder DSME at its shipyard in Korea. In preparation for its delivery from Korea, the Angolan shipyard Paenal underwent renovations to support fabrication and integration of exceedingly large modules. In November 2013, the M122 module, fabricated in Paenal, was lifted onboard CLOV FPSO, marking another historic achievement as the first ever topside module integration carried out in Angola.
For ExxonMobil, the punctual timing of CLOV’s production has the company confident that it will see an increase in oil production. “Block 17, along with Esso Angola-operated Block 15, in which the company has a 40% working interest, are the most productive blocks in Angola,” said Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Development Company.
ExxonMobil affiliates’ Angola interests also include 15% of the Kaombo project, located in southeast area of Block 32, which launched development of six fields in April. Production in Block 15 from Kizomba Satellite Phase 1 started in 2012. Phase 2 project development is underway with production startup targeted for 2015.
Image: The CLOV FPSO, by Neil Johnston.
Read more:
Subscribe
