LNG

May 20 (LNGJ) - Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specialising in subsea work, has been awarded a new offshore contract by Azule Energy of Angola, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and UK major BP. The contract, valued at $850 million, is for the development of the Ndungu Field as part of the Agogo Integrated West Hub Project, located 180 kilometres off the coast of Angola.

   Saipem said the scope of work entailed the engineering, fabrication, transportation and installation of around 60km of rigid pipelines and of the subsea facilities at a depth of around 1,100 metres, as well as the transportation and installation of flexible flowlines, jumpers and 17km of umbilicals. “Fabrication activities will be executed at Saipem’s Ambriz yard in Angola,” said Saipem.

The state-owned oil and natural gas company in Namibia in southwest Africa has signed an agreement with Chevron Corp. granting the US major an 80 percent operating and working interest in a key offshore block.

The terms of the transaction are that Namibia National Petroleum Corp. (Namcor) and Custos Energy, a Namibian independent oil and gas exploration company focused on attracting investment and expertise to the Namibian offshore industry, will each retain a 10 percent carried interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence 82 located in the Walvis Basin to Chevron Namibia Exploration Limited's majority stake.

Namibia has four oil and gas exploration and production basins north to south, comprising the Namib Basin in the north, then the Walvis Basin in Central Nambia, followed by the Luderitz Basin just to the south of that and then the more prolific so far Orange Basin in the far south near South African waters.

Orange discovery

Galp Energia of Portugal said on April 22, 2024, that its Mopane discovery in the southern Orange Basin could contain 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent or more.

The Namcor-Custos-Chevron deal concerns the Walvis Basin in the middle of the oil and gas resource area and offshore Walvis Bay in Central Namibia.

Namcor said in a statement that this strategic collaboration underscored its dedication to maximizing the exploration potential and development of Namibia's offshore resources, particularly in under-explored basins holding significant promise.

The transaction is pending regulatory approvals from the Namibia Ministry of Mines and Energy.

“Together, we will leverage significant expertise and resources to propel our national interests and economic growth, turning possibilities into prosperity for Namibia,” said Namcor’s Interim Managing Director Ebson Uanguta in a statement.

Namcor added that it anticipated a substantial surge in oil and associated natural gas production estimates following the analysis of existing data.

Ample seismic

Analysts noted that around 70 percent of the total block area is covered by extensive existing seismic data comprising over 3,500 kilometres of 2D and 9,500 kilometres of 3D data.

Previous drilling activity on PEL 82 discovered the Murombe-1 and Wingat-1 wells.

Results confirmed regional extensions and the presence of the Barremian-Aptianoil-prone source rock, known as Kudu Shale.

“We are pleased to announce the continuing expansion of our in-country partnership with Chevron through their entry into PEL 82,” said Knowledge Katti, Chairman and Chief Executive of Custos.

“This is one of the most advanced and interesting opportunities offshore Namibia outside of the Orange Basin.” Katti explained.

“We are pleased to see our efforts over the last decade on PEL 82 result in this important step forward adding further to Namibia’s world-class offshore opportunity,” he stated.

Australian company Melbana Energy, which began production testing in October at its Alameda oil field offshore the north coast of Cuba, has delivered first oil from early production testing and was upbeat on future prospects for the Cuban production sharing contract held by operator Melbana in partnership with Sonangol, the national energy company of African LNG producer Angola.

French major TotalEnergies, a shareholder in the Angola LNG export plant, has finalized the sale for $400 million to a unit of Malaysian energy company Petronas of a stake in Block 20 in the Kwanza Basin offshore the Angolan coast.

TechnipFMC, the US oil and gas services company based in Houston, has been awarded a significant contract in Angola by Azule Energy, the joint venture set up by European majors BP and Eni in the Southwest African nation to oversee 16 licences as well as participating in Angola LNG operations.

Liquefied natural gas-producing nation Angola, which has pioneered associated gas use from oil fields to turn into LNG for export, has decided to open up the potential of the southern offshore Kwanza Basin likened in some ways by petroleum engineers to the prolific Santos Basin offshore Brazil.

The TotalEnergies-led Cameia-Golfinho project will be the first deepwater development in the pre-salt Kwanza Basin and is estimated to hold at least 420 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Analysts note that Angola is known to have significant untapped resources as demonstrated by the contrast between its proven and estimated reserves of 9 billion versus 57 billion barrels of oil and 11 trillion versus 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The pre-salt areas in southern Africa represent frontier acreage with lower exploration risk and higher potential for production.

As part of its efforts to focus on subsea tie-backs, infill drilling and other near-hub projects, French major TotalEnergies is ready for the development of the pre-salt production hub for Blocks 21/09 and 20/11 in the Kwanza Basin.

The company’s Cameia-Golfinho project in Kwanza will be the first deepwater project in the pre-salt area.

FID scheduled

TotalEnergies and Angolan national oil and gas company, Sonangol Exploration & Production, have just signed a heads of agreement with Angola’s energy regulator, the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG), related to the development of the Cameia and Golfinho fields in the Kwanza Basin and a final investment decision is expected in 2023.

TotalEnergies said that this future offshore development project in Blocks 20 and 21, located around 150 kilometres (93 miles) southwest of Luanda, will comprise a new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, the seventh for TotalEnergies in Angola, connected to a subsea network.

“The design of this new project includes electrical generation from a combined-cycle turbine and a zero-flaring concept, allowing a lower carbon intensity,” said TotalEnergies.

The Chairman of the Board of regulator ANPG, Paulo Jerónimo, said that the accord with the TotalEnergies-Sonangol joint venture should allow the first production in the maritime zone of the Kwanza and may “contribute decisively” to the national production objectives.

“Its potential may generate interest from other operators, including the beginning of other developments on the Kwanza Basin,” Jerónimo explained.

Gaspar Martins, Chairman of the Board at Sonangol, said the company’s main objective is to make the Kwanza project successful.

“For some time now, we have wanted Blocks 20 and 21 to start producing, and we target a final investment decision this year so that the offshore Kwanza Basin soon begins production,” stated Martins.

TotalEnergies is the Blocks 20-21 operator with an 80 percent shareholding while Sonangol owns the remaining 20 percent.

National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) in southwest Africa said a third discovery had been made by partners Shell and QatarEnergy in the deep-water offshore Orange Basin as hopes were also raised for future revenues from associated gas like northern neighbour and LNG exporter Angola.

State-owned Namcor said the light oil discovery was the third made in the Basin after drilling the Jonker-1X exploration well.

The well is located in Block 2913A and 2914B (PEL 0039), 270 kilometres (168 miles) offshore southern Namibia.

Shell and QatarEnergy each hold a 45 percent stake in the PEL 0039 concession while Namcor has a 10 percent shareholding.

The well was drilled in Block 2913A and 2914B, following drilling operations which commenced in December 2022 and were completed safely early in March 2023.

The Jonker-1X discovery is the third well drilled in the past year in the licence area held by Shell.

Namcor said that the “Deepsea Bollsta” semi-submersible rig owned by offshore firm Odfjell drilled the well to a total depth of 6,168 metres in a water depth of 2,210 metres.

The acquired data is being evaluated and further appraisal drilling is planned to determine the size and recoverable resources potential of the discovery.

Potential

“The discovery has proven the exciting potential of the deep-water Orange Basin,” said Namcor Managing Director Immanuel Mulunga.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Qatar Minister of Energy Affairs and the Chief Executive of QatarEnergy, said he was pleased with the encouraging discovery.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our partners Shell and Namcor, and to congratulate and thank the Government of the Republic of Namibia, which has been very supportive of this exploration effort,” said Al-Kaabi.

This announcement follows two similar announcements by QatarEnergy in February 2022 of oil discoveries in the Graff-1 well and in the Venus-1X prospect, both located in the Orange Basin.

In addition to the PEL-39 Exploration Licence, QatarEnergy also holds interests in PEL-56 (30 percent) and PEL-91 (28.33 percent) in offshore Namibia covering a total area of 28,327 square kilometres.

Saipem, the Italian subsea and drilling company, has been awarded contracts in the LNG-producing nation of Angola for the Azule Energy joint venture and for wells in the Côte d'Ivoire where the West African nation is aiming to boost oil and gas production.

UK major BP and Italian energy company Eni have agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture company in the LNG-producing state of Angola in southwest Africa called Azule Energy.

Feb 11 (LNGJ) - The 154,950 cubic metres capacity LNG carrier “Malanje” is heading for the UK port of Milford Haven with a shipment of LNG from the southwest African nation of Angola. The vessel lifted its cargo on January 30 from the Angolan Soyo liquefaction plant located just south of the Congo River delta, according to shipping data. The African facility is operated by US major Chevron Corp. The “Malanje” is scheduled to arrive around February 14 at the Dragon import terminal at the Welsh port.