Offshore staff
KASSEL, Germany – Total and its partners are working to progress the Fenix gas field development offshore southern Argentina toward a final investment decision, according to Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren.
Mehren, speaking at a results presentation, said that the recent decision by Argentina’s government to support natural gas producers under the Plan Gas 4 scheme was “helpful.” The government is looking to stimulate domestic gas production in order to reduce the country’s reliance on imports of LNG and of gas from neighbor Bolivia.
Fenix is northeast of the producing Vega Pleyade field in the Total-operated Cuenca Marina Austral 1 (CMA-1) concession, and around 60 km (37 mi) offshore Tierra del Fuego. Wintershall Dea and Pan American Energy are the other concessionaires.
Previous studies for Fenix are said to have focused on an unmanned wellhead platform with six wells tied back to onshore facilities.
Elsewhere, Wintershall Dea is a partner to Talos Energy in block 7 offshore Mexico, containing the large Zama oil discovery. Mehren said a decision is due on March 25 concerning unitization of the field, which extends into an adjacent block operated by Pemex.
In the Norwegian North Sea, the company is working on a feasibility study for permanent storage of CO2 at the Brage field. It has also re-started infill drilling at Brage, following the temporary financial incentives introduced by Norway’s government last summer to sustain E&P activity.
However, start-up of the Dvalin gas field in the Norwegian Sea – a tieback to the Heidrun platform – will likely be pushed back to the second half of 2022, following the recent discovery of a higher than anticipated mercury content in the Dvalin reservoir.
A Wintershall Dea executive said a mercury recovery solution is currently being scoped and designed.
Offshore the UAE, the company is a partner in the sour gas Ghasha concession. Development drilling has started on the Dalma field, and operations are now starting to construct artificial islands for the Ghasha and Hail field wells.
As for progress on construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas lines in the Baltic Sea, which has been stalled due to sanctions against Russia (Wintershall Dea is part of the Nord Stream AG consortium), Mehren commented:
“The infrastructure is greatly needed. Europe’s gas production is declining and we need to import gas to meet climate targets as we phase out coal…
“Germany’s gas storage capacity fell from 75% to 30% during the most recent cold spell,” he pointed out.
02/24/2021
