PARIS, Dec. 4 -- French company TotalFinaElf SA has begun production from the $2.8 billion Girassol field development in deep water off Angola.
Girassol field is in 1,350 m of water 150 km offshore.
At production startup, 11 wells were connected (eight are producers) via 70 km of infield pipelines linked to three riser towers carrying production to a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ Online, July 6, 2001).
By yearend, the flow will have reached 100,000 b/d. The 200,000 b/d plateau should be reached sometime in second quarter 2002.
Development drilling will continue until 2003. Thirty-nine subsea wells are planned: 23 producers, 14 water injectors, and 2 gas injectors.
Mar Profundo Girassol, a joint venture between Bouygues Offshore SA and Stolt Offshore SA, constructed the Girassol FPSO under a $700 million engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract with TotalFinalElf SA (OGJ, July 20, 1998, p. 42).
Other discoveries have been made on Block 17. In 2003, Jasmim field will be tied back to the same FPSO, while a separate one will be built for development of Rosa, Lirio, and Dalia in 2005.
Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol holds the concession for Block 17, which contains Girassol. TotalFinaElf is operator with 40%, ExxonMobil Corp. 20%, BP PLC 16.67%, Statoil ASA 13.33%, and Norsk Hydro AS 10%.
