Offshore staff
LONDON – Tullow Oil says its three-field TEN development project offshore Ghana is around 65% complete and on schedule for first oil in mid-2016.
Highlights during the first half of this year include running two well completions and starting work on a third; installing four subsea christmas trees; completing fabrication in Ghana of anchor piles for the FPSO, ahead of the offshore installation campaign which started earlier this month; and transportation of specialist subsea manifolds and umbilicals, now in transit from the US.
Conversion work on the TEN FPSO continues at theJurong Shipyard in Singapore. All major modules are installed and integration works are under way. A naming ceremony is due to be held in September with the vessel set to sail for Ghana around year-end.
Tullow and its partners continue incremental development of the nearby Jubilee field with two additional wells. The J-37 oil producer was drilled in early July and should come online in September, while the J-36 water injector is due to be drilled during 4Q.
The company remains in discussions continue with the government of Guinea on the resumption of petroleum operations in its offshore exploration blocks. Force majeure was lifted on the block after a US regulatory investigation of partner Hyperdynamics was dropped.
Drilling of the Fatala exploration well depends on the outcome of these discussions and the status of theEbola situation in Guinea.
In the UK southern North Sea, Tullow says the first phase of the Thames Area decommissioning program has been completed. The company’s Horne and Wren platform is now hydrocarbon free and the subsea wells are isolated.
Phase two planning is under way for removal of the Horne and Wren platform and selected well P&A in 2016.
This month Tullow acquired a 25% stake in license PL 650 offshore Norway from operator E.ON, subject to government approval, in exchange for Tullow’s 15% stake in PL 722. Recently drilling started on the Salander prospect in PL 650.
OffshoreSuriname, drilling continues of the non-operated Spari-1 well in block 31, targeting a shelf-edge play. Results are due in August.
At the Tullow-operated offshore block 54, a 4,000-sq km (1,544-sq mi) 3D seismic survey is under way, designed to high-grade prospects for future drilling.
Geological studies and interpretation of seismic data also continue on the Kanuku block off Guyana and block 15 offshore Uruguay. Tullow will decide later this year whether to enter the next phases of the licenses, both of which carry drilling commitments.
Also in the Caribbean Sea, a bathymetry survey has been completed over Tullow’s 32,056-sq km (12,377-sq mi) Walton Morant blocks offshore Jamaica, along with drop core, thermal and environmental baseline studies.
Following interpretation of these studies and further seismic reprocessing, the company will decide whether to acquire a new 2D and 3D seismic survey during the initial three-and-a-half year exploration period.
07/29/2015
