Schlumberger has been awarded an extensive contract for drilling, completions, and production services by TotalEnergies for its Tilenga onshore oil development in Uganda. The scope of the contract includes the provision of directional drilling services, upper completions, lower completions, artificial lift solutions, and wellheads for the Tilenga development, which comprises six fields with up to 426 wells which will be developed across 31 wellpads.
“The Tilenga project is strategically significant to accelerated economic growth in Uganda,” said Wallace Pescarini, president, Offshore Atlantic, Schlumberger. “Schlumberger has committed to a comprehensive national content development plan, supporting TotalEnergies with environmental, social, and governance initiatives and in-country value creation. This will be achieved through local capacity building, localization of supply chain, education development, HSE stewardship, and digital enablement.”
Drilling activities are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The drilling award is just the latest in a series of contracts let by TotalEnergies related to Tilenga. Last month, the oilfield construction arm of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. won the engineering, procurement, supply, construction, and commission contract worth $611 million to build oil and gas transmission systems for the development.
Sinopec International Petroleum Service was appointed by the oilfield’s developer and will build an oil and gas transmission system from Tilenga oilfield’s wellhead to its central oil and gas processing station and other facilities. Construction is expected to take 6 years.
In January, TotalEnergies launched a massive open online course for Ugandans interested in working on the Tilenga project. The company said the work would allow people to find out more about the oil and gas industry on Tilenga and qualify for additional training.
The $10-billion Tilenga project, which reached FID in February 2022, covers three production licenses (PLs) from contract area (CA)-1 and three PLs from LA-2. The PLs include Jobi-Rii, Gunya, Ngiri, Kasamene-Wahrindi, Kigogole-Ngara, and Nsoga. The project includes the development of a central processing facility (CPF) with capacity to process 190,000 B/D of oil and 700,000 B/D of total liquids. Drilling of 200 water-injector wells, 196 oil-producer wells, 2 polymer pilot wells, and 28 reference wells is planned.
Over 160 km of flowlines will transport crude oil and water from the wells to the CPF. A 95-km, 24-in.- diameter feeder pipeline will transport the processed crude oil from the CPF in Buliisa to the export hub and refinery in Kabaale in Hoima District.
TotalEnergies operates Tilenga with a 56.67% working interest. Partners include CNOOC (28.33%) and UNOC (15%).
