With a planned peak output of 100,000BOPD expected to come in months after scheduled first oil in 2015, the shallow offshore Mafumeira Sul project should increase Chevron’s Angolan output to 534,000BOPD(operated). But that is if there is zero decline in the company’s other producing fields.
Chevron’s recent announcement of final sanction for the development of the $5.6 billion project, in 60 metres of water in Block O, is a clear challenge to TOTAL’s emergence as the leading operator in that country.
TOTAL currently leads the pack of producers with 648,200BOPD(operated production, December 2012), while Chevron makes a distant second at 434,000BOPD, with ExxonMobil close behind at 394,300BOPD. Most of TOTAL’s production is in deepwater. Conversely, Chevron is ahead in shallow water production, some of which is fed into the country’s only refinery. The Mafumeira Sul project is an indication that Chevron still has more to produce in the shallow offshore terrain.
Still, Chevron’s catching up on TOTAL’s operated production looks a mere mirage, for now. The French major is in the middle of construction of a 160,000BOPD cluster development of four fields, including Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea, and Violeta, in 1,200metres of water on average, in the northwest of Block 17. First oil is scheduled for 2014. The fields were discovered and appraised between 1998 and 2006. And there’s more production coming from other operators: On December 6, 2012, BP brought on stream the PSVM cluster of fields in its ultradeepwater Block 31. BP says it reached 3.5MMBO of oil production from the new field effective to January 31, 2013, which equates to 63,000 BOPD. This figure does not show on the data published on the website of Angola’s Ministry of Finance(see chart below).
Chevron’s Mafumeira Sul is expected to build toward peak total daily production of 110,000 barrels of crude oil and 10,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas. The project scope includes 50 wells, two wellhead platforms, a central processing and compression facility and approximately 121 km of subsea pipelines. Associated natural gas will be commercialized through the Angola Liquefied Natural Gas (ALNG) plant in Soyo, Angola.
Chevron holds a 39.2 percent interest in Mafumeira Sul, with partners including Sonangol E.P. (41 percent), Total (10 percent) and ENI (9.8 percent). Mafumeira Norte, the initial development of the Mafumeira Field, achieved first oil in 2009 and currently produces more than 40,000 barrels of oil a day. Chevron produces 340,000 barrels of oil and condensate (108,000 net) from Block 0.
ANGOLAN DAILY PRODUCTION DECEMBER 2012(OPERATED AVERAGE, ANGOLA’S MINISTRY OF FINANCE)
SHELF/ONSHORE/DEEPWATER
TOTAL 648,200BOPD
Chevron 434,000BOPD
ExxonMobil 394,300BOPD
BP 153,000BOPD
Sonangol P&P 70,013BOPD
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