Page 14 - AfrOil Week 02 2023

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

“I think it is a great opportunity for Namibia. Last year, while speaking at the Namib-
We have a massive gas resource in the name of ia’s International Energy Conference 2022 in
Kudu,” Hangala said as quoted by The Namib- Windhoek, National Petroleum Corporation
ian, adding that the plant would produce power of Namibia (NAMCOR) managing director
for both Namibia and South Africa as the infra- Immanuel Mulunga said the country in 2014
structure to wheel power to South Africa is missed out on a massive opportunity to com-
already in place. mercialise the Kudu gas project.
“We already have transmission lines. We are “Shutting down Kudu gas was a mistake.
connected and we will reverse the trend of rely- Kudu gas would have been active by now,” he
ing on South Africa. We will help South Africa, said at the time as quoted by The Namibian.
and we will also help ourselves,” he was quoted The Kudu fields, situated about 200 km offshore
as saying. Oranjemund, were said to hold an estimated 1.3
According to the entrepreneur, who is cur- trillion cubic feet (36.81bn cubic metres) of gas.
rently the executive chairman of the Hangala It was assumed that production fed by the
Group, gas will play an important role for Kudu gas fields would more than double the
Namibia following two large oil and associated 400 MW of capacity Namibia had at the time,
gas discoveries last year in the deepwater Orange says The Namibian. However, the government
basin by oil majors Shell and Total. pulled the plug on the project, refusing to give
Namibia imports between 50% and 60% of its certain guarantees, and revoking agreements
energy requirement from the Southern African that would have allowed the project to take off.
Power Pool (SAPP) to complement supply and Mulunga said mistakes like these are costly
meet demand, writes The Namibian. The coun- and “political assistance is sometimes necessary,”
try has power purchase agreements (PPAs) with adding that if the government is able to revisit
South Africa (200 MW), Zambia (100 MW), this decision, the possibility of reactivating the
and Zimbabwe (80 MW). project remains, reports The Namibian. ™

Production drilling begins for Hibiscus

Ruche Phase I project offshore Gabon

GABON BW Energy (Norway) has spudded DHIBM-3H,
the first production well for the Hibiscus Ruche
Phase I development project at the Dussafu
Marine block offshore Gabon, according to a
statement from Panoro Energy (Norway), a
non-operating partner in the block.
In a statement dated January 9, Panoro
reported that the Borr Norve, the jack-up drill-
ing rig chartered for Hibiscus Ruche Phase I, had
arrived at the drilling site in late December. The
partners then spudded DHIBM-3H, which will
target the “regionally prolific Gamba sandstone
reservoir,” at the Ruche field in the first week of
January, the company said.
The new well is the first to be drilled within
the framework of a multi-well campaign that
will eventually allow the Hibiscus and Ruche The development project will boost production by 30,000 bpd (Image: BW Energy)
fields to boost oil production by 30,000 barrels
per day (bpd). These wells will be linked to exist- an update on activity in other sections of the
ing infrastructure – namely, the BW MaBoMo Dussafu Marine block, noting that a new gas lift
production facility and the BW Adolo floating compressor unit had been delivered to the BW
production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) Adolo FPSO at the Tortue field in December.
vessel – via a 20-km pipeline, and the partners The partners’ contractors are currently working
recently finished installing the flexible field to install the compressor, which will support
pipelines and risers needed to complete this production operations at the six existing wells
connection. drilled at Tortue, it stated. They expect to fin-
Panoro did not say when BW Energy ish commissioning the unit and bring it online
expected to complete DHIBM-3H or how before the end of the first quarter, as previously
deep the well would be. However, it did offer scheduled, it said.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 12•January•2023