Page 12 - AfrOil Week 29 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

However, Moscow and others have been push- deal lets both the Saudis and the Emiratis to
ing to step up output and Riyadh could not be claim victory. From Saudi Arabia’s perspective
seen to take a secondary position to Russia. That it was able to extend the deal while only allow-
said, the closer Saudi production comes to its ing baseline level alterations for key allies. Even
OPEC+ quota, the less flexibility it can wield to then, the move will have little bearing on Iraq,
keep others in line. which has routinely overproduced.”
Meanwhile, state-owned Saudi Aramco has a Algeria and Nigeria have spoken of their
maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) of 12mn displeasure about the move though, saying that
bpd, which it has been instructed to increase to allowing the bigger producers to raise their base-
13mn bpd by the Ministry of Energy. lines unfairly penalises those with output lev-
The potential upside for Saudi Arabia is that els. However, keeping the top exporters happy
once Aramco completes the projects to raise appears to have won the day.
MSC, it can produce at a higher level without Meanwhile, Simm added: “With Saudi
being seen to flout the quotas. However, the unlikely to utilise any of its additional 500,000-
company is still working on a plan to achieve this bpd wiggle room for the time being, allowing
increase as maintaining production at mature other members to add around 1.1mn bpd to
assets and tapping the Jafurah basin for gas take the market from May next year seems like a
priority. deal worth making to maintain co-operation,
Speaking to AfrOil, Ian Simm, Principal providing they are able to keep a lid on the dis-
Advisor at consultancy IGM Energy said: “This content.” ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Woodside set to launch development

drilling programme at Sangomar

SENEGAL AUSTRALIA’S Woodside Energy said last week
that it was preparing to begin development drill-
ing at Sangomar, an oil-bearing block located
offshore Senegal.
In a statement, the company reported that
the Ocean BlackRhino, the first of two drill-
ships that will carry out the 23-well drilling
programme, had arrived in Senegalese waters
on July 8.
It indicated that this vessel was slated to spud
the first development well at the block in the sec-
ond half of the month and noted that the second
drillship, the Ocean BlackHawk, was not due to
arrive until mid-2022.
Woodside went on to say that three helicop- The block includes Sangomar Offshore, Sangomar Deep and Rufisque (Image: FAR)
ters and three supply vessels would provide sup-
port for the drilling programme by transporting programme a key milestone on the way to begin-
personnel, materials and equipment to the drill- ning oil production at Sangomar. “We are
ships. “The ships will operate out of the Sene- pleased to announce the launch of these oper-
gal Supply Base, located at Mole 1 in the Port of ations, which brings the realisation of an oil
Dakar,” it added. industry in Senegal an important step closer,”
Together, the Ocean BlackHawk and the she said. “The RSSD joint venture took final
Ocean BlackRhino will sink the wells that sup- investment decision [FID] in January 2020,
port the first phase of development work at and work to develop the world-class Sangomar
Sangomar. resource has continued since. With the start of
These wells will be linked to the Leopold the 23-well drilling campaign, we remain on
Sédar Senghor, a floating production, storage track to achieve targeted first oil production in
and off-loading (FPSO) unit that is now under 2023.”
construction. The FPSO will have a capacity of Woodside recently completed the acquisition
about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). of a minority stake in RSSD, the joint venture set
Meg O’Neill, the acting CEO of Woodside, up to explore and develop the Sangomar block,
called the launch of the development drilling from FAR Ltd, another Australian company.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 29 21•July•2021