Offshore West Africa awards

PennWell held the 16th edition of its Offshore West Africa (OWA) Conference & Exhibition this past January in Nigeria. The widespread protests and extremist activity in the country deterred many industry professionals from attending the event. All things considered, the event was a success. The quality of the presentations is among the many reasons that the conference is now in its 17th year, with a dedicated following. Three presentations from the recent edition of OWA were given top honors by the advisory board. Awards were in three categories:

Young Engineer: Mr. Unwana Bassey, Total E&P Nigeria, "Deepwater intelligent well completion: case study of an installation failure in Usan project"

Best Presentation: Mr. Akin Osuntoki, Richardson Oil & Gas Ltd., "Local content development – closing opportunity gaps"

Best Technical: Mr. Brian Ennever, Paladon Systems, "Autonomous shutdown valve for subsea PLEM valves."

Preparing a paper and presentation for a conference takes considerable time and effort, and often requires a rigorous approval process. A special thanks to all of speakers for their hard work, and congratulations to the award winners.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the advisory board chairman of OWA 2012, Engr. Francis Alabo Ogaree, General Manager, International Venture Operations, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He was a true ambassador for the event and a tremendous support to the PennWell team.

Offshore West Africa returns to Accra, Ghana, March 19-21, 2013. You are welcome to submit an abstract via the conference website:www.offshorewestafrica.com.

Emerging deepwater gas play

Mozambique is shaping up as a rival to Australia as a major new source of LNG. This follows Anadarko's continued run of gas discoveries in Rovuma basin deep offshore Area 1, and Eni's potentially larger strike in adjacent Area 4, according toOffshore Editor-Europe, Jeremy Beckman. Anadarko plans to develop its natural gas discoveries with an offshore hub platform tied directly to an LNG plant onshore. The operator suggests that this would be one of the top five projects coming onstream throughout the world this decade, alongside the Gorgon and Browse basin LNG schemes off northwest Australia. Beckman's activity review and in-depth analysis of the emerging deepwater gas play offshore Mozambique and Tanzania, begins on page 30.

Brazilian progress report

Brazilian operators Petrobras and OGX, both vying for its share of the country's resource-rich presalt play, are moving closer to their stated goals. Petrobras has commissioned the construction of all 28 newbuild drill rigs that it says are required to help meet its production targets. Contracts for 26 of the rigs in the tender were finalized last month. Ocean Rig will build five drillships; and Sete Brasil will build 21 rigs, which includes drillships and semisubmersibles. All of the rigs, which have local content requirements of 55% to 65%, are due for delivery in 48 to 90 months. The agreement with Ocean Rig carries an average day rate of $548,000. The Sete contract averages $530,000/day. Petrobras is targeting total production of about 6,418,000 boe/d by 2020; 1,993,000 bbl of which will come from presalt fields, according to former president and CEO, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo (Offshore, Nov. 2011). Gabrielli also said Petrobras expects the presalt finds will double Brazil's reserves.

Meanwhile, OGX has first oil from an extended well test in the Waimea accumulation in the Campos basin offshore Brazil. Converted by Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, FPSOOSX-1 is anchored on site for the well test. The FPSO contractor, OSX, estimates OGX requires an additional 18 FPSOs, five TLPs, and 24 wellhead platforms for delivery by 2019. Endorsed by its client, OSX is building what it says is the largest shipyard in the Americas, Açu Shipbuilding Unit. The Rio-based shipyard is expected to start off with a $4.8-billion order book backed by Brazil's national plan to invest $140 billion to grow reserves to 100 Bboe by 2020. OGX has set a goal to produce about 1.4 MMb/d of oil by 2019. Offshore contributing editor, Gurdip Singh, visited with OSX and OGX in Singapore during the launch of FPSO OSX-1. His full report begins on page 48.

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