UPSTREAM REVIEW
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/oet.12371 |
| Date | 01 April 2016 |
| Published date | 01 April 2016 |
UPSTREAM REVIEW
Africa
Cameroon: SDX Energy Inc, an oil and gas explo-
ration and production c ompany with assets in Eg ypt
and Cameroon, and Dana Petroleum, announced the
completion of drilling operations on the Manatee-1
explorationwellintheBakassiWestblockinCameroon.
SDXEnergyreportedthatthewellboreconditions
did not allow for the pro curement of a full suite of
logging tools, thereby making the evaluation of the lower
intervalsindecisive.ecompanysaidfurthertechnical
work would be nalized with the samples and material
gathered from the well.
Paul Welch, SDX Energy CEO, surmising the results,
said “Whilst we are disappointed not to have made an
oil discovery, we recognized the risks associated with
exploration wells of this kind. e secondar y objective
was to see whether we could make a commercially viable
gas discovery. At this stage it is too early to quantify the
Manateee-1 gas potential and our technical team will be
working closely with our par tners to evaluate the well
results to determine if the gas volumes on the block have
commercial potential.”
Ghana: A consortium comprising Ghana National
Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Explorco, Vitol, Eni
and Woodelds, has been awarded a new exploration
licence, Cape ree Points Block 4, located in the Tano
Basin, 60 km (37 mi) from the coast of Ghana.
Cape ree PointsBlo ck4 covers an area of 1,127 km2
in water depths ranging from 100 m (328 ) to 1,200 m
(3,937 ).
e licence was awarded following the approval of the
Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.
Since January 2015, Vitol and Eni have been develop-
ing the Sankofa and Gye Nyame elds to provide gas for
Ghana’sthermal power sector to 2036. e new block lies
near these existing elds.
Oil production is expected to start in 2017 and it is
thought that output will reach approximately 80,000 bpd
by 2019. Gas production will follow in 2018 and is
expected to have a daily production rate of 170 mcfd.
e oshore elds are estimated to hold approxi-
mately 1.5 tcf of gas and approximately 500 mn bbl ofoil.
EniGhanaistheoperatorofthedevelopmentand
holds a 47.22% share. Vitol and GNPC own a share of
37.8% and 15%, respectively.
CIS
Russia: GazpromNehasreviseditsproductionsched-
ule in an attempt to “dramatically” boost oil production
from its Prirazlomnoye eld, the company announced.
e move, approved by Russian Federal Sub-
soil Resources Management Agency, Rosnedra, has
increased the eld’s“peak” production from three to ve
years. It is estimated that oil production will increase
by a factor of 1.8 with the eld yielding as much as
169 mn bbl of oil.
e new capacity and improvementsto certain asp ects
of production and transport infrastructure could see
annual peak production volumes reach as much as
35 mn bbl of oil.
In March 2016, Gazprom Ne celebrated its biggest
milestone in the eld’s history. “e 10-millionth barrel
of oil is a major landmark, prov ing that oil production
ontheArcticShelfcanbebothsafeandviable.We
are pushing ahead with op ening up the Prirazlomnoye
eld, with the produ ction and shipment of hydrocarbons
running to schedule,” said Gennady Lubin, Executive
Director, Gazpromne Shel f.
e license to explore and produce hydrocarbons at
the Prirazlomnoye eld is owned by Gazprom Ne Shelf
(former Sevmorneegaz), a wholly owned subsidiary of
Gazprom Ne.
e eld, discovered in 1989, is located in the Pechora
Sea, south of NovayaZemlya, Russia. It contains reserves
of approximately 6 10 mn bbl of oil.
Europe
UK: Production from the Erskine eld has b een
impacted by a pipeline blockage, Serica Energy reported.
On 28 February, Erskine production was temporarily
suspended during essential maintenance work to enable
a foam cleaning device, known as a pig, to be recov-
ered from the Lomond to Everest condensate line and
to repair a condensate e xport pump on the Lomond
platform, a Serica state ment said.
Serica fur ther conrmed that pigging of the Lomond
to Everest line was successfully completed and produc-
tion is expec ted to resume from mid-April.
In response to the blockage,Serica Energy will reduce
its Q1 average product ion to approximately 2,100 boe/d,
compared with previous guidance of 2,500 to 3,500
boe/d. e impact on April production will depend on
how quickly production is resumed.
“e Erskine eld has continued to exceed expec-
tations since Serica acquired its interest in June last
year. e high facility uptime, improved and consistent
eld production rates and material cost reductions have
resulted in operating costs per barrel well below recent
oil price lows. We expect this strong performance to con-
tinueoncethepighasbeenrecoveredandproduction
has resumed,” Tony Craven Walker, Serica Chairman,
reected.
e Erskine Field lies approximately 241km (150 mi)
east of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the Central North Sea, in
water depths of about 90 m (296 ).
© 2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd
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