Offshore staff
LONDON – Tullow Oil plans to step up exploration drilling offshore West Africa over the coming months.
In early April the company and partner Anadarko spudded the Calao-1X well off Côte d’Ivoire. A result is expected this month. The partners have also received approval from the government for an appraisal well to be drilled this fall on their offshore Paon discovery.
OffshoreMauritania, Tullow expects to start a four-well exploration campaign in July. Last month the company signed a production-sharing contract for the shallow-water C3 license area.
Also in April, the company assumed operatorship from Hyperdynamics of the offshore Guinea oil and gas exploration concession and plans to drill a deepwater prospect in 1Q 2014.
At the Jubilee field offshore Ghana, production has averaged 104,000 b/d of oil this year. Tullow has completed a test of the FPSO facilities and results suggest the oil system capacity could be raised to more than 125,000 b/d.
The Jubilee gas compression upgrade project is on schedule to be finished this summer, removing the current oil capacity restriction of 110,000 b/d. However, the planned gas export route could be delayed until the end of 2013 or beyond, so work continues to maintain sufficient gas injection capacity to ensure no impact on Jubilee oil production.
As for the Jubilee Phase 1A development project, two wells have been completed and are producing above expectations. The remaining three Phase 1A producers and three water injectors will be completed this fall, later than scheduled due to poor performance and extended downtime of the semisubmersibleSedco Energy, Tullow says.
Offshore Suriname in block 47 the company continues processing of seismic data. Initial interpretation has confirmed the presence of major deepwater turbidite systems. The partners will draw up a proposed prospect inventory ahead of entering the next phase of the production-sharing contract in April 2014.
OffshoreUruguay, the company has finalized a farm-out agreement for Area 15, although this has to be approved by Uruguay’s regulator. Since the start of this year, 3D seismic acquisition has been in progress over the license – evaluation of the data will start in 4Q 2013.
Finally, Tullow expects to spud its first operated well offshore Norway on the Mantra prospect this fall.
5/14/2013
