As part of our special report on West Africa in this month’s issue, our editors looked at what’s happening now and what might happen in the near future.
For example, late last year, oil started flowing from Total’s second production center in Angola’s block 17. Dalia, like its forerunner Girassol, is being developed via one of the world’s largest FPSOs linked to an extensive network of deepwater subsea wells.
There the similarities end, however, asJeremy Beckman, Editor-Europe, points out in his report on Dalia in this month’s issue.
Dalia’s shallower subsurface location presented greater difficulties in well design, due to the need for a steeper drilling radius, and the field’s extent would require twice as many wells to develop. Also, its Miocene crude is much heavier than Girassol’s Oligocene oil, and cooler on outflow. Total came up with solutions for these and other challenges, as Beckman describes in his report on the field development, beginning onpage 44.
But with industry focus on the established players and the big plays offshore West Africa, much of the region’s nascent activity has been overlooked. Because the newer frontier areas are overshadowed by the mammoth developments, few in the industry are aware that new areas are being explored. Some of the newest plays are on Africa’s east coast, which, for the most part, has seen very little drilling. The most interesting activity is offshore Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique. The new prospects could well be as promising as some of the giants now moving into production, asInternational Editor Judy Maksoud discusses in her analysis of The other Africa, beginning on page 52.
Top 10 offshore drillers
This year’s list of top 10 drilling contractors (by fleet size) is headed once again by Transocean, followed by GlobalSantaFe and Noble. No surprise there. And there’s no surprise in the supply-demand picture, as rig utilization is virtually 100%.
The offshore rig market, as analyzed for Offshore byJustin Smith of ODS-Petrodata, experienced a year of highs in 2006, and the trend is not expected to stop in 2007. Nearly all rigs that can work are working.
Day rates have set records in 2006, and 2007 likely will see rates push even higher in some market segments. Operators and rig owners alike have reported record profits, and as a result, overall operator spending will increase this year. Although commodity prices faltered somewhat recently, operators and rig owners continued to post record profits, and the good times should continue for some time to come. Read the full report onpage 38.
Seafloor seismic coming of age
Ocean-bottom cable (OBC) seismic data acquisition is coming of age rapidly. Two things in particular are feeding this maturation. One is the interest in the advantage of wide-azimuth/rich azimuth surveys, and the other is the interest in “seeing” deeper into the target, such as for subsalt imaging. Along with these have come advances in cable connections and in understanding of how OBC systems operate. Current circumstances from an operations viewpoint have contributed, too. The worldwide demand for vessels and the resulting run-up in day rates has benefited OBC because the method can eliminate the need for a recording vessel.Technology Editor Gene Kliewer takes a look at how seafloor seismic is coming of age in his analysis beginning on page 102.
