Vol. 15 Issue 15 26 July 2012 AFRICA OILANDGAS BREAKING NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM AFRICA Total prepares to hand out Moho Nord TLP The award of the initial tension leg platform contract for to be submitted in early August. Total’s US $8 Bn Moho Nord project off Congo Brazzaville is Bidders believe Total is looking for the cheapest price possi- expected any day now, with only two consortia left vying for ble as it has set the hull at only shipbuilding specification with the deal. no further specific requirements. The groups, led by old rivals While DSME, HHI and Samsung Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Heavy are leading the way for the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), are topsides, the hull specifications mean going to the wire after the FloaTEC Chinese yards are also involved here. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine The full FPU contract is expected Engineering (DSME) groups were to be awarded around the same time eliminated. HHI had been expected to as the TLP contract and winning one be favourite for the deal because of its may provide some help in the contest long history with Total and its alliance for the second. Being awarded the with French firm Doris which worked FEED for the TLP is also likely to on the pre-FEED. However, AOG help with winning the full engin- understands that the Samsung bid ori- eering contract. HHI also won the ginally came in cheaper and HHI $410m contract for the FPU for the revised its offer after clarification original Moho project back in 2005. meetings earlier this month. Moho Nord is in the northern part At stake is the front end engineering and design contract of the Moho-Bilondo licence and will produce around with the full contract expected to be awarded in the first quar- 100,000 b/d of crude from recoverable reserves of around ter of next year. 300m bbl. The project is in 3,610ft (1,100m) of water with first In the meantime the contest for the floating production unit oil expected in 2016. Associated gas will be piped to the LPG (FPU) is also hotting up, with invitations to tender expected FSO at Total’s Nkossa field. VAALCO Gabon platform bids set for October VAALCO now expects to send out invitations to bid for its two Petroleo Nautipa FPSO which has oil production capacity of platforms in the Etame block off Gabon 25,000 b/d. Currently there are platforms in October. over Etame, one over Avouma and The list of contenders is likely to South Tchibala and one over the include a series of Gulf of Mexico com- Ebouri field. panies with the contacts up for grabs The second new platform will take in including fabrication, transportation, around 10m bbl of oil from the 2010 installation and hook-up. Southeast Etame discovery. The well was McDermott is working on the design drilled to a total depth of 9,045ft engineering and procurement manage- (2,757m) and a second sidetrack of the ment for a platform for Etame itself and well indicated an oil column of up to 90ft on design engineering contract for a (27m). Southeast Etame/North Tchibala plat- This has marginal commerciality by form. itself and VAALCO also wants to take in The topsides on each platform will the North Tchibala oil find made by weigh around 1,900 tonnes and the jack- Chevron in the 1980s. This is believed to ets around 1,450 tonnes. have complex geology but also contains The company produces from four fields on the block to the gas which will be used as a fuel for the FPSO and platforms. l Unauthorised reproduction or distribution of l Africa Oil and Gas newsletter is strictly prohibited STG INSIDE THIS WEEK Sea Trucks Group Technip waits on Africa 2 Tanzania adds to ultra-deep 5 Cooper Tunisia platform 3 Marathon pays for E Africa debut 6 Chevron’s Lianzi moves forward 3 Tullow firms Côte d’Ivoire hub 7 Delivering the Difference in Africa since the 1970’s Repsol targets Morocco 4 Hess Ghana wildcat hit 8 GAS E Guinea LNG train two closer as Ophir uncovers more gas A second LNG train in Equatorial Guinea is one major step of 5,245ft (1,599m) to a total depth of 10,080ft (3,072m). closer after the first of Ophir’s three wells aimed at finalising Tonel is the first in the three well Block R drilling campaign commercial reserves exceeded expectations. using the Eirik Raude semisub. It will now move to drill The Tonel-1 well is the fifth find in Block R and the biggest, around Ophir’s previous Fortuna gas discovery. as Ophir now believes it has a recoverable mean resource of Fortuna East-1 will start next week and results are expected 800 Bcf of gas (133m boe) bringing the total in the block to in August. It will appraise 304 Bcf of the earlier Fortuna Fan around 2.2 Tcf. The minimum commercial threshold for a sec- discovery and test the 359 Bcf Viscata prospect. ond LNG train on Bioko Island is estimated to be 2.5 Tcf. Fortuna West-1 will follow with results expected in early The well encountered 385ft (117m) of net gas pay in the mid- September. It will appraise another 299 Bcf of the Fortuna Fan Miocene sandstone target. The well was drilled in a water depth discovery and will separately test the 474 Bcf Felix target. Tullow sets Mauritanian Banda investment date Tullow Oil will make a decision on the commerciality of its Mauritanian state electricity company) 40%, national mining US $700m Banda gas-to-power project off Mauritania in company SNIM 26% and Kinross Gold Corp 34%. The elec- December. tricity will be used for mining activities, domestic Mauritanian Production is expected in 2014 and a power project com- consumption and could eventually be exported to neighbour- pany has been set up which has already entered into an agree- ing countries. ment to purchase gas from the field 60km offshore. The shallow water Banda field has lain dormant since dis- FEED work on the upstream development comprising two covery back in 2002. wells linked to a 350 MW onshore power plant has started and Petronas drilled two successful appraisal wells on Banda Tullow is also looking at an oil tie-back to the FPSO at the back in 2008 when it was operator - Banda Northwest and Chinguetti field. Banda East. The field lies in around 985ft (300m) of water The power project company is composed of Somelec (the and has estimated recoverable gas reserves of around 1.2 Tcf. Saipem seizes US $800m onshore Nigeria gas deal Saipem has been awarded a new US $800m onshore contract construction and commissioning of compression facilities at in Nigeria by Shell. the four sites of Ogbotobo, Beneside, Opukushi and Tunu, The lump sum turnkey contract has been awarded for the and of new gas central production facilities in Tunu, which SSAGS (Southern Swamp Associated Gas Solution) project, will treat the routed associated gas. to be developed at sites 65km southeast of Warri, in the Delta The project will be wholly domiciled in the country and rep- State. resents the first time a project of this size is to be fully devel- The scope of work includes the engineering, procurement, oped in Nigeria. FIELD DEVELOPMENT Rialto Côte d’Ivoire sanction before year end Rialto Energy is still expecting to sanction its platform devel- together with the success achieved to date at Gazelle-P3 opment off Côte d’Ivoire by the end of the year after complet- ST1/2, to result in the sanctioning of the Gazelle development ing testing of the penultimate well in its current programme. by the end of 2012,” said MD Jeff Schrull. The Gazelle-P3 ST2 well in Block CI-202 tested gas at 19.5 Petrofac is working on the FEED contract with completion MMcf/d and an unstabilised rate of 760 b/d of oil. The well has expected in October. been suspended for future use and the rig is drilling the The production facilities will consist of a fixed production Gazelle-P4 well which is designed to appraise two additional platform at Gazelle with oil and gas pipelines from the plat- oil reservoirs and three additional gas reservoirs. form to shore. The pipelines will be designed with spare Following this all subsurface data will be integrated with the capacity for future production of up to 40,000 b/d and 230 final processed 3D seismic data and a revised competent per- MMcf/d but initial production is expected to be around 8,000 sons report issued. b/d and 100 MMcf/d. The production platform is expected to “We expect the successful drilling of the Gazelle-P4 well, be sited in 131ft (40m) of water. Technip waits for Africa surge Technip believes the next 12-18 months will see major resur- [in Africa] are very keen to make decisions on some of the gence in activity in Africa after a slow period. projects,” he added. “Nigeria is still pretty slow although Egina could be sanc- The company posted a 1.3% rise in second-quarter net profit tioned this year or early next year. Block 32 in Angola we and kept its outlook for the year as it saw no impact yet from the could see that and some small to medium projects in lower oil price and Europe’s economic troubles on its business. Equatorial Guinea and medium to large in Ghana,” chief exec- Net income reached US $163m bolstered mainly by utive Thierry Pilenko said.