Page 9 - AfrOil Week 44 2019

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil
Kosmos Energy reports offshore oil find
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
US-BASED Kosmos Energy has discovered crude oil in the Rio Muni Basin, located offshore Equatorial Guinea.
In a report on its third-quarter performance, the company said it had encountered “approx- imately 39 metres of net oil pay in good-qual- ity Santonian reservoir” while drilling the S-5 well. It did not specify the location of the well but said that S-5 had reached target depth in late October. The well was sunk to a total meas- ured depth of approximately 4,400 metres in 800-metre-deep water, it added.
Kosmos stated that it had selected the drill- ing site on the basis of new 3D seismic data it collected last year. “The well is located within tieback range of the Ceiba FPSO, and work is currently ongoing to establish the scale of the discovered resource and evaluate the optimal development solution,” it said.
The company and its partners used the Maersk Voyager drillship to sink the well, which was the first drilled within the frame- work of their infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) initiative. This programme targets areas where Kosmos is already producing oil and has enough midstream infrastructure to support the development of new finds by using subsea tie-backs. This approach can reduce the amount
of time needed to move from discovery to first production to 18 months or less, according to previous reports.
Equatorial Guinea’s Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy confirmed Kosmos’ dis- covery. In a statement dated November 4, it said that the company had begun evaluating S-5 in order to determine the size and parameters of the new deposit and to draw up a schedule for development.
The head of the ministry, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, expressed satisfaction with Kosmos’ work. “We are very excited about the results of the S-5 well, the first well drilled in this ongoing exploration campaign. The dis- covery is a strong validation of our strategy to replace oil reserves by exploring the highly pro- spective oil basins like Rio Muni,” he said.
Obiang Lima also said he hoped the S-5 discovery would help the country attract other investors. “We are eager to establish more oil prospects in offshore Equatorial Guinea,” he commented. “This is good for more jobs and opportunities for our citizens and investors.”
Kosmos has a 40% stake in the S-5 project. Its non-operating partners are UK-based Tri- dent Energy (40%) and Equatorial Guinea’s national oil concern GEPetrol (20%). ™
Renergen signs two contracts for work on Virginia Gas Project
SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH Africa’s Renergen is moving forward with work on the Virginia Gas Project, which will be the country’s first commercial LNG plant and the first liquid helium plant in Africa.
Last week, the company awarded two major contracts for work on the facility. One of the contracts went to another South African firm – EPCM Bonisana, which will install a pipeline and manage the interface between the pipe and other parts of the facility. The other contract went to Western Shell Cryogenic Equipment (WSCE), a Chinese firm, and covers the deliv- ery of technology and equipment for the plant.
Renergen said in a statement that it had chosen to work with WSCE because the Chi- nese company had extensive experience in the construction of small-scale LNG plants. The contractor built its first facility of this type in 2004 and was responsible for constructing the smallest LNG plant in the world in 2007.
“We look forward to seeing Renergen and
WSCE making liquid natural gas and liquid helium in South Africa a reality,” the statement said.
The South African company did not reveal the value of the contracts or say when WSCE and EPCM Bonisana would begin work. It did say, though, that the Virginia Gas Project was due to begin regular commercial operations in the first half of 2021. The facility will eventually be able to turn out 645.3 tonnes per day of LNG and 350 kg per day of liquid helium, it said.
According to the statement, Renergen will build the plant according to a modular plan, and each section will be the size of a standard shipping container. This will make the modules easier to transport and install, it commented.
The company also noted that the plant’s energy consumption levels would be relatively low. This is because the design calls for using a mixed refrigeration cycle to liquefy the gases, it explained. ™
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