Addax keen for Nigeria progress
IAIN ESAU, London of Upstream
Operator starting development work on two new offshore projects
Geneva-based Addax Petroleum is carrying out engineering work on two new developments, Kita Marine and Antan, on its shallow water OML 123 core asset off Nigeria.
Netco, a subsidiary of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, is currently carrying out pre-front end engineering and design work on Antan, and will soon handle the FEED, said chief operating officer Jim Pearce.
Speaking to analysts, Pearce said Antan will be exploited via a fixed platform kitted out with artificial lift equipment due to the field's heavy oil.
“We're looking at electric submersible pumps versus gas lift as the best way to go,”said the operations boss.
First oil is due to flow in 2011 at the earliest. Kita Marine, will be onstream in early 2011.
As Kita lies in shallower water than Antan and is a straightforward light oil discovery, it will be tapped via two simple wellhead platforms that can be installed via a jack-up rig.
A development plan, comprising 14 wells, will be submitted to the authorities by the end of June this year.
Antan's proven and probale reserves stand at about 15 million barrels, with Kita Marine's equivalent figure estimated to be about 43 million barrels.
One new project that will be on stream shortly in OML 123 is Adanga North Horst, a wellhead-platform scheme where production is due to peak at 15,000 to 20,000 bpd next year.
In deeper Nigerian waters in OML 137, Addax will drill a key appraisal well on its Ofrima discovery after June this year, the results of which will determine how it will be developed.
Options include a stand-alone floating production, storage and offloading vessel.
Onshore Nigeria, in OML 124, Addax has pinned down a preliminary development plan for its recent 40 million barrel Njaba discovery.
Assuming a successful appraisal well is drilled this year, the field will be tapped via 31 wells with output expected to hit 30,000 barrels per day.
Production would flow via a new 13-kilometre pipeline to Addax's Izombe field in the same block and from there would be sent via an exisitng piepline to a terminal at Eboche.
Oil could begin flowing in early 2011, if a nearby exploration well on the Ute prospect is successful and can easily be tied back to Njaba, said Pearce.
In the Nigeria-Sao Tome Joint Development Zone, Addax's exploration boss Jeff Schrull said Transocean's Deepwater Pathfinder drillship will drill the 350 million barrel Kina prospect in Block 4 in the fourth quarter.
Sinopec will then take the rig to drill a wildcat on Bomu in Block 2, a 270-million barrel structure.
“(As for) the third and fourth wells, we're keeping our options open,”said Schrull.
AI
