Saipem Wins Zohr EPCI Work

Saipem has landed new engineering and construction contracts and variation orders totaling more than US $1.7 billion for offshore projects, including the Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean Sea offshore Egypt.

Petrobel, a joint venture between Eni and Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., awarded Saipem an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the accelerated start-up of Zohr. The contract entails EPCI work for six-well development, installing the umbilical system and installing a 26-in. gas export trunkline as well as 14-in. and 8-in. service trunklines. Work is set to begin this month and finish by year-end 2017.

To get the job done, Saipem said it plans to mobilize a fleet of vessels, including the ultra-deepwater last generation pipelayer Castorone, the semisubmersible pipelayer Castoro Sei, the trench/pipelay barge Castoro 10 and other specialized vessels.

GSP Secures Numhyd Drilling Contract Offshore Tunisia

Numhyd, the company jointly owned and managed by the Tunisian Company of Petroleum Activities (ETAP) and Sonatrach, has awarded Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) an offshore drilling contract in Tunisia.

The drilling operations will be carried out with GSP Jupiter, a cantilever-type mobile offshore drilling unit, GSP said.

Currently, the rig is under preparation for the contract in Limassol, Cyprus. GSP Jupiter will drill one firm well with the option to drill an additional one.

Ocean Installer Wraps Up Its First Deepwater Mooring Job

Ocean Installer said it recently completed a mooring recovery and reinstallation project for a Gulf of Mexico production facility at a water depth of more than 2,500 m (8,202 ft), its first such job in ultradeep water.

The project included management, detail engineering, planning, mobilization, material handling, transportation, recovery and reinstallation operations to replace the mooring lines, the company said.

Ocean Installer’s Normand Clipper construction support vessel was used for a second-quarter 2016 job.

Alpha Lines Up Stampede TLP Commissioning Work in GoM

Alpha Completions Group will provide commissioning services for the Hess Corp.-operated Stampede tension-leg platform (TLP) project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico’s (GoM) Green Canyon area.

During the FEED phase, Alpha provided commissioning planning services for the project. Work included development of onshore strategies, commissioning feasibility reviews of facility design, review and provisions of system handover drawings, cost estimates and project schedules.

Alpha will provide commissioning management, certification management and personnel as the project moves into the execution phase.

Initial plans for the development include six subsea production wells and four water injection wells from two subsea drill centers tied back to the Stampede TLP. The field is located in about 1,067 m (3,500 ft) of water. The reservoir depth is 9,144 m (30,000 ft).

Gross topsides processing capacity for the project is about 80,000 bbl/d of oil and 100,000 bbl/d of water injection capacity. Total gross recoverable resources for Stampede are between an estimated 300 MMboe to 350 MMboe.

First oil is expected in 2018. Hess holds a 25% stake in the project. Partners are Chevron, Statoil and Nexen, each with a 25% stake.

TEN Nears Finish Line For First Oil

With less than 5% of the project left to finish, Dallas-based Kosmos Energy said first oil is expected from its Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) project offshore Ghana within the next three to six weeks.

Plans are to initiate the integrated startup sequence with water injection to the Enyenra reservoir in July followed by oil production and then a sequence repeat for the Ntomme reservoir. Also nearing completion is hookup and commissioning of the FPSO unit, which has a capacity of 80,000 bbl/d of oil, according to a Business Wire news release. The average annual production from TEN is expected to be about 23,000 bbl/d in 2016 as it ramps up toward the FPSO capacity by year-end 2016.

More drilling is expected after the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana border dispute is resolved. A resolution could arrive late next year.

Meanwhile, work on export facilities continue and is ahead of schedule. Completion is expected in late 2016, which is about six months early. Developers are assessing their options to speed up gas exports, according to the release.

“Associated gas production at TEN is expected to be reinjected into the Ntomme reservoir gas cap until gas export begins,” the release said. “Gas export was planned to commence 12 months after field startup, with the Tweneboa gas reservoir coming onstream a further 12 months later.”

New Subsea Well In Store at Balder

Exxon Mobil Corp. has been granted permission to use a new subsea well on the Balder Field in Block 25/11 in the Norwegian North Sea.

The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) of Norway said the well, called E-29-AH, is about 3,500 m (11,483 ft) from the Balder floating production unit (FPU).

Balder, which is part of production license 001, was the first oil discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in 1967. The discovery was not considered to be commercially viable at the time, according to the PSA. However, new investigations carried out about 30 years later led to the field’s development and production in 1999.

Production was originally estimated to last until 2011, but Exxon Mobil received permission to extend the facility’s operating life to 2025 after the Ringhorne Field was tied back to the Balder FPU.

—Staff Reports

Offshore