San Francisco: ExxonMobil has begun oil exploration at its offshore Angola project Kizomba Satellites Phase 2 earlier than scheduled, the company announced on Thursday.
Under this project the American multinational oil and gas giant is developing – along with some co-venture partners – three fields in the South Atlantic Ocean off of southwest Africa through its subsidiary Esso Exploration Angola.
Kizomba Satellites Phase 2 is a Block 15 subsea infrastructure development of the Kakocha, Bavuca and Mondo South fields, of which the latter will be the first to begin production.
Located roughly 150 km off Angola’s coast in about 1,350 m of water, the deepwater project is expected to produce 70 Mbbl/d (70,000 barrels per day) at peak with anticipated total production of 190m barrels over a roughly seven-year lifespan.
The project is expected to increase total daily Block 15 production to 350,000 barrels. The project scope includes subsea wells, floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) topside modifications and installation of flowlines and subsea equipment.
The Mondo South field is being developed with tiebacks to the Mondo FPSO while the Kakocha and Bavuca fields are being developed with tiebacks to the Kizomba B FPSO. A tieback is a connection between a new oil and gas discovery and an existing production facility.
Irving, Texas-headquartered ExxonMobil was awarded Block 15 in 1994 and, to date, has discovered a total of approximately 5bn oil-equivalent barrels. Oil production from Block 15 so far has exceeded 1.8bn barrels. Kizomba Satellites Phase 1 started production in 2012.
Esso Angola has 40 percent interest in Block 15 while other partners in the venture include BP Exploration Angola Limited (26.6%), Eni Exploration Angola BV(20%) and Statoil Angola Block 15 AS (13.33%).
Nearly $740 million has been invested in Angola for the project, including contracts for fabrication, logistics support and training and development of Angolan personnel.
