Offshore staff
LONDON – Tullow Oil and its partners have submitted a plan of development for the Tweneboa, Enyenra, and Ntomme (TEN) fields offshore Ghana to the country’s Ministery of Energy.
The development is designed to allow reserves from these fields and from nearby discoveries to tieback to an FPSO.
Following theWawa discovery on the surrounding Deepwater Tano block in July, an appraisal program is under evaluation.
Drilling is under way at the Okure exploration well. The rig then moves to drill the Sapele exploration well southwest of the Jubilee complex. The current license period is due to expire in January.
At the Jubilee field, acid stimulation of certain Phase 1 production wells has paid off, increasing overall oil production from 63,000 b/d in mid-2012 to around 85,000 b/d, which is in line with expectations.
TheJubilee Phase 1A development is progressing with five of the eight wells drilled. All have encountered good quality reservoir on prognosis.
Following unscheduled maintenance on theSedco Energy rig, well completion operations started at the end of October. Phase 1A production should begin soon from one well, with another well brought online and a further acid stimulation completed by year-end.
This work program should lift production to more than 90,000 b/d by year-end. The FPSO’s production capacity should be fully occupied during the first half of 2013 as further Phase 1A production and injection wells come online.
As for Tullow’s offshore operations elsewhere in Africa, the Banda gas field offshore Mauritania has been declared commercial and the field likely will supply an onshore power project.
In September, the second stage of a 3D seismic survey was completed in block C-2, ahead of a major exploration campaign scheduled to start in 1Q 2013 across various licenses.
Offshore Mozambique, where Tullow earlier this year farmed into Statoil-operated blocks 2 and 5, a 2,000-sq km (772-sq mi) 3D survey has been acquired and two wells are planned next year.
Moving to South America, off French Guiana, theStena DrillMax began drilling the Shell-operated Zaedyus-2 appraisal well in July, 5 km (3.1 mi) updip of the Zaedyus-1 discovery well. The aims are to appraise the apex of the existing discovery, and to target the Zaedyus Deep fan. Results are expected in the next few weeks.
In block 47 offshore Suriname, Tullow completed a 3,000-sq km (1,158-sq mi) 3D seismic survey in early September. Early processing results look promising, and final processed volumes over the prospects will be available by mid-2013.
Last month, Tullow signed 100% equity in the block 15 PSC offshore Uruguay, covering 8,030 sq km (3,100 sq mi). The block is in the Pelotas basin in water depths of 2,000-3,000 m (6,562-9,842 ft).
Targeted geological horizons are similar to the Cretaceous stratigraphic turbidite plays Tullow has pursued offshore West Africa and off northern South America. The company plans to acquire 3D seismic next year to further evaluate the license’s prospectivity.
In the North Sea, Tullow has signed a sales and purchase agreement with GTO to acquire its exploration interests offshore the Netherlands, lifting Tullow’s interest in most licenses in the area to 60%.
In the UK Caister Murdoch System area, the single well tiebackKaty development project operated by ConocoPhillips should deliver first gas in December.
11/14/2012
