Eni and Sonagol have started oil production from the Ochigufu field in Block 15/06 offshore Angola, approximately 150 km west from the city Soyo and 380 km northwest of Luanda, the Angolan capital city.
The wells are connected subsea to the Sangos production system and tied from there into the N’Goma floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the West Hub of Block 15/06. The startup, achieved 1½ years after presentation of the Plan of Development, is the first for Eni in 2018 and the first startup of the year in Angola. It represents a further development of the Block 15/06, where Eni discovered over 3 billion bbl of oil in place and 850 million bbl of reserves. After these discoveries, the company developed the block quickly, starting up the Sangos field in 2014, Cinguvu in 2015, and Mpungi and Mpungi North in 2016.
The Ochigufu startup will serve as the subsea boosting system for Mpungi, while Vandumbu field in West Hub is expected to start production in early 2019. With Ochigufu online, Vandumbu is the only field in the West Hub not currently producing. West Hub covers a total of 30 wells, 17 of which are producers and 13 are injectors. Combined with a submarine pumping system Eni plans to launch in the second half of 2018, the two new fields should add 54,000 BOPD to the company’s current production in the area.
Eni said the subsequent startup in this block in 2018 will be the UM8 reservoir in the East Hub, which started up in February 2017. Production at East Hub is taking place in the Cabaca South East field through the Armada Olombendo FPSO, which can generate up to 80,000 BOPD and compress up to 3.4 million m3/D of gas. The project involves 9 wells and 4 manifolds at a water depth of 450 m.
Eni currently holds exploration rights on Block 15/06 through 2020, which the company said will permit it to exploit the full near-field exploration potential of the basin.