Page 4 - AfrOil Week 28

AfrOil CommEntARy AfrOil
Total’s year of drilling
The French company is pursuing an aggressive exploration schedule
sEnEgAl, soutH AfRiCA
WHAt:
Total is working on exploration around Africa’s offshore.
WHy:
The company has remained aloof from shale and must seek other options to shore up its future.
WHAt nExt:
The Brulpadda nd is a promising sign for the south African licence, with more speculative wells also under way.
ToTAl is pushing exploration across Africa in demonstration of the newfound hopes. e company has lined up a rig for follow-up drilling o shore South Africa and is nearing the restart of operations in Senegal.
ere is a sense of cautious optimism among the majors, as can be seen by a return to explo- ration. When it comes to Africa, Total remains the leading light. e French company has not shown the same enthusiasm as its peers in pur- suing shale and tight opportunities in North America, choosing instead to stick with its tradi- tional hunting grounds of Africa and the Middle East. is move can be seen in the agreement to acquire Anadarko Petroleum’s African opera- tions from occidental Petroleum.
In comments at the beginning of the year, Total’s head of exploration, Kevin Mclach- lan, said the company would drill 23 wells in 2019. ese would be drilled in waters o shore Africa and latin America, he told Reuters. e o cial went on to say it would reduce its focus on frontier areas, shifting to emerging and mature basins. Frontier areas have been hard for everyone in the industry, with Westwood Global Energy Group having a success rate across the industry of just 6% over the last ve years.
e company has also changed the way in which it pursues exploration. It has established regional centres to rank prospects and opportu- nities, moving away from country-based teams.
Technology is also playing a role. In June, the company announced it had started up the Pan- gea III supercomputer, the most powerful such piece of equipment in the industry and 11th in the world. is will help in a number of ways, including processing of seismic imaging – par- ticularly useful in areas with complex geology, such as Angola and the Eastern Mediterranean.
south Africa
one important part of the puzzle for Total was the Brulpadda discovery. The company announced the signi cant gas condensate nd in February 2019. is was followed by the acqui- sition of 3D seismic, with plans for four more exploration wells on Block 11B/12B.
odjfell Drilling committed to the provision of the Deepsea Stavanger semi-submersible for work in South Africa, the Norwegian company announced on July 11. e rm contract is worth $145-190mn plus incentives, the company said, covering mobilisation and demobilisation.
Drilling work should take 180-280 days, it
said. Mobilisation will begin in the rst quarter of 2020.
“Following Total’s recent successful campaign with Deepsea Stavanger in South Africa on the Brulpadda well, which ended in February 2019, we are very pleased to continue the collabora- tion with Total for the next phase of the project on Block 11B/12B,” said odjfell’s CEo, Simen lieungh. “We believe it is of great benefit to od ell Drilling and Total to be able to utilise the same drilling unit for the next wells in order to build on the experience from the previous explo- ration drilling campaign in this operationally challenging, harsh environment high-current area.”
In advance of this next step of the South Afri- can work, though, Total is intending to drill the Venus well, o shore Namibia, at the end of this year. Where Block 11B/12B is in the outeniqua Basin, Venus is in the orange Basin, with the French company holding acreage in this basin on both the South African and Namibian sides.
senegal
Meanwhile, a report from Upstream last week said the French company was poised to resume drilling of a wildcat o shore Senegal, with Paci c Drilling’s Paci c Santa Ana.
Upstream reported that work might begin on July 12. Work started in April but was halted on June 21, as a result of unspeci ed problems with the blowout preventer (BoP).
e Jamm-1XB well is being drilled on the Ru sque Deep block. Total has another two one- well options on the rig and is thought to be using one to drill another well o shore Mauritania.
Total was awarded the block in 2017, in a move contested by African Petroleum, which also claimed the area. African Petroleum has launched an arbitration case in an attempt to defend its claims. e company had been unable to meet its work commitments.
Petronas entered Ru sque Deep in mid-2018 at a time when the Malaysian company was mak- ing a broader push into the area, and also taking a stake in FAR’s Gambian blocks. e Samo-1 well was drilled in the second half of the year, on e Gambia’s A2 block, but disappointed.
Clearly not all Total’s prospects will come in, but Brulpadda has launched this year of drilling in a positive direction. e company is working on additional projects on the continent, perhaps most notably its Angolan interests, but this year should set the stage for Total to consolidate its hold on Africa.™
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 28 16•July•2019