Page 11 - AfrOil Week 03 2020
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AfrOil
PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil
The state concern is also supporting another project in Cross River State. Equatorial Guinea, meanwhile, has less advanced plans to build two refineries on Bioko Island and Bata.
Walersmith won rights to the EG-23 block in Equatorial Guinea’s latest licensing round in November last year. At the ceremony, its
chairman Abdulrazaq Isah said the company saw “a lot of opportunities and similarities [between] our two countries and we are going to share our experience, capacity, technology and knowledge base that we have as Nigerians who have operated in this industry in the last 5 0 y e a r s .”
Total and partners postpone drilling offshore South Africa
South Africa’s offshore zone (Image: Impact Oil & Gas)
SOUTH AFRICA
FRANCE’S Total has pushed back the start date for drilling work on a new well at Block 11B/12B offshore South Africa.
The French company had originally planned to spud the Luiperd-1 well in the first quarter of 2020. Earlier this week, though, it said in a statement that it would begin drilling sometime in the second quarter.
Total did not reveal the reasons for the post- ponement. But Canada-based Africa Energy, the part-owner of a minority shareholder in the Block 11B/12B project, indicated that the change was related to scheduled maintenance work on Deepsea Stavanger, the semi-submers- ible rig that will be used for drilling work at the licence area.
Total used the same rig to drill Brul- padda-1AX, where it reported the discovery of commercial reserves of light crude oil and gas condensate in February 2019.
In a separate statement, Africa Energy said Total and its partners had concluded a mul- ti-well contract with Odfjell Drilling, the owner of the Deepsea Stavanger, last July.
“The rig is currently under contract drilling production wells for AkerBP in the North Sea.
AftertherigisreleasedbyAkerBP,itisexpected to spend approximately two weeks at the Semco Maritime shipyard in Bergen, Norway for main- tenance and modifications before mobilising to South Africa,” it explained. “According to the updated rig release schedule, the Luiperd-1 well is expected to spud in the second quarter of 2020.”
Africa Energy also reported that the Deepsea Stavanger was slated to remain at Block 11B/12B for nearly a full year. During that time, it said, the rig will drill up to three more wells.
Equity in the project is split between Total, with 45%; Qatar Petroleum, with 25%; CNR International (South Africa), with 20%, and Main Street 1549, a company in which Africa Energy owns a 49% stake, with 10%. The group’s 19,000-square km licence area lies in the Out- eniqua Basin in waters ranging from 200 to 1,800 metres deep.
“The Paddavissie Fairway in the south-west corner of the block includes the Brulpadda oil and gas discovery, as well as several large subma- rine fan prospects that have been significantly de-risked by the discovery and subsequent 3D seismic work,” Africa Energy noted.
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