Page 14 - AfrOil Week 48 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

Gail Anderson, research director for Sub-Sa- into the possibility of selling the unit since 2020.
haran Africa at the Wood Mackenzie energy A spokesperson for the company confirmed
consultancy, expressed agreement with this per- this, saying to the news agency earlier this week
spective, telling Reuters: “It is a high-cost region that the unit was due to be decommissioned and
where carbon emissions are a problem as well.” eventually towed away. ™
One of the news agency’s sources also noted,
though, that ExxonMobil had been cutting back
at Block B for some time.
The US-based company took its Zafiro pro-
duction platform off line earlier this year and
evacuated all staff after water entered the unit
and has now trimmed output at the Serpentina
platform to less than 15,000 barrels per day
(bpd), the source said.
This represents a sharp drop from last year’s
average production level of 45,000 bpd – and
an even sharper drop from ExxonMobil’s pro-
duction peak of 300,000 bpd, a figure that was
recorded in 2014.
According to one of Reuters’ sources, the
company may make up some of this lost ground
if it secures shareholder and government
authorisation for the installation of Jade, a third
production platform. The source said this plat-
form would be able to extract 25,000-30,000
bpd of oil but did not reveal when it might start
production.
Meanwhile, Zafiro will not recover from
the idling of its infrastructure. As Reuters
explained, ExxonMobil is not interested in
repairing this platform, as it has been looking The Zafiro platform was taken off line earlier this year (Image: ExxonMobil)

TotalEnergies will soon seek exploration

drilling licence for offshore Block 5/6/7

SOUTH AFRICA TOTALENERGIES (France) is gearing up to noise levels and socioeconomic conditions,
finalise and submit its request for permission to GroundUp noted.
drill up to five exploration wells at Block 5/6/7 If PASA approves TotalEnergies’ application,
located off the coast of South Africa, GroundUp the wells will be drilled within a 10,000-square
has reported. km section of the block where 2D and 3D seis-
The website did not say exactly when the mic data have already been acquired. Accord-
French major was likely to submit its applica- ing to previous reports, this section lies roughly
tion to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa between Cape Agulhas and Cape Town, in a
(PASA). However, it did note that members of section of the offshore zone that lies 60-170
the public would be able to comment on the km from the coast in water depths of 700-3,200
matter until December 7. metres deep.
Meanwhile, it said, TotalEnergies last The French giant has said it hopes the explo-
week finished holding a round of meetings in ration drilling project will help boost South
several coastal communities – including Har- Africa’s reserves of gas, an energy source that
manus, Hout Bay, Kleinman and Saldanha Bay has a lower carbon emissions intensity than coal.
– as part of the public participation component The latter is still the main fuel used by many of
of its environmental and social impact assess- the country’s thermal power plants (TPPs),
ment (ESIA). despite its larger contributions to air pollution
As part of the assessment process, it also and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
hired independent evaluators from SRL Con- GroundUp quoted Stéphanie Dezaunay, a
sulting (UK) to review the anticipated impact spokesperson for TotalEnergies, as saying that
of the exploration drilling project on air quality, the major wanted to play a role in expanding the
climate conditions, fisheries, marine ecology, supply of this bridge fuel.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 01•December•2022