Cairn Energy is assessing tender responses for the FPSO facility and subsea infrastructure for its SNE field development, offshore Senegal, ahead of the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase planned for the fourth quarter of this year. Cairn, as operator, has a 40% working interest in three blocks offshore Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore and Rufisque Offshore) alongside partners, Woodside 35% WI, FAR 15% WI, and the Senegal National Oil Company, Petrosen 10% WI, which has the right to increase its equity to 18% on development.
Company Updates
TGS announces new 3D multi-client survey off West Africa
Norwegian geoscientist data company TGS has announced that it will commence a new 3D multi-client in West Africa in the early fourth quarter of this year. TGS said that Jaan, a fully harmonized 3D multi-client project, will cover the southern portion of the MSGBC Basin from northern Senegal, through Gambia and the AGC zone into Guinea-Bissau and down to the Guinea transform fault. The project will consist of 11,135 square kilometres of new acquisition complemented by the reprocessing and full stack merging of existing multi-client 3D. The new data will be acquired using triple source broadband acquisition.
CGG’s MotionMap UK Data ‘Enhances Ground Risk Reports of Terrafirma Search’
High-precision ground stability measurements from CGG’s recently released MotionMap UK database will now be used to enhance the specialist ground risk reports of Terrafirma Search, the UK’s leading independent advisor on ground hazards. After signing a multi-year agreement with CGG, Terrafirma becomes one of the first UK companies to include the latest-generation MotionMap UK data, which reveals millimeter-scale changes in ground and building heights, in their suite of geological, geotechnical and environmental services.
Oil Spill Response achieves first air transport of fully-assembled capping stack
Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) has reached another important milestone in the development of its subsea capping and containment response capabilities – successfully completing an air transport test flight of a fully assembled subsea capping stack for the first time. OSRL said the newly demonstrated capability has the potential to significantly reduce capping stack mobilisation times, and represents the realisation of a key objective for the company and all those involved in its Subsea Well Intervention Services (SWIS).
Bridgeport Energy completes three-month refurbishment of self-owned rig
Bridgeport Energy has announced that its BDR-1 rig, which is capable of drilling to depths of up to 2,500m, commenced the first of five oil development wells on 31 August. The two-month campaign was started in the Surat Basin on the Moonie field with Moonie-46, which will be follow by Moonie-45. Thereafter the rig will move to the Cooper Basin where it will drill three development wells on the Utopia field. Bridgeport said the rig will then go back into service mode to continue with infield workover activities planned for the balance of the year at Bridgeport’s producing fields.
Terrex appoints new CEO
Terrex Seismic has announced the appointment of Dave Stegemann as its new CEO, bringing over selected senior management from Geokinetics Australia. Dave Stegemann is a highly regarded industry leader with 25 years of experience in the global seismic exploration industry, including five years as Managing Director of Geokinetics Australia before its assets were recently acquired by US-based SAExploration. Terrex said Stegemann’s appointment comes as the company prepares to launch a second seismic crew in the coming months with a “significant new investment into state-of-the-art autonomous SmartSolo nodes”.
ExxonMobil drilling two exploration wells in Gippsland Basin
ExxonMobil has commenced an offshore exploration drilling program in the Gippsland Basin in the search for new sources of gas supplies. ExxonMobil said that it was drilling two exploration wells, Baldfish and Hairtail, on the VIC/P70 block, located approximately 90km off the East Gippsland Victorian coast, in which Exxon’s Australian subsidiary Esso Deepwater Gippsland holds a 100 percent interest. The operation is expected to take several months and the wells are being drilled by Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Monarch semi-submersible drilling rig.
Woodside targeting Senegalese oilfield production by 2022
Woodside, is aiming to commercialise Senegal’s first ever oilfield by 2022, Mr Jamie Stewart, Woodside’s Business Integration Manager for the Senegal Field Development, told the Paydirt 2018 Africa Down Under mining conference in Perth last week. In an update on the SNE Development – Phase 1, Mr Stewart said a number of important items have already been ticked off in the lead-up to a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2019 for the world-scale project, with a number of key decisions on the horizon.
CGG Develops a Centre for Advanced Imaging for PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd
CGG and PETRONAS Carigali, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), have agreed on collaboration to provide access to CGG’s latest technology and expertise in high-end seismic and multi-physics imaging and reservoir characterization, the Paris-based geoscience company announced. CGG said it had received a five-year contract by PETRONAS Carigali to develop a Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) to be operated by PETRONAS Carigali at its headquarters in the landmark PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
FAR finalises well location for exploration program in Gambia
FAR Limited has selected its final well location for the upcoming Samo-1 well in its Gambian exploration programme. This follows reprocessing and interpretation of 3D seismic data, detailed mapping of the Samo Prospect and detailed well engineering, FAR announced recently. The Samo Prospect lies immediately to the south and along trend from the giant SNE oil field in Senegal – a trend which has so far seen nine successful exploration and appraisal wells (at 100% success rate). The Samo-1 well will be located in approximately 1,017m water depth and 112km offshore Gambia in the highly prospective Mauritania-SenegalGuinea-Bissau-Conakry Basin.