The East Hub Development Project involves the development of the Cabaça North and Cabaca South-East discoveries located within Block 15 /06, approximately 350km north-east of Luanda, Angola.
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Eni operates the Block 15 /06, holding a 35% interest, while the remaining interest is held by Total (15%); Sonangol (15%); SSI (a joint affiliate of Sinopec and Sonangol, 25%); Statoil (5%) and Falcon Oil Angola Investimentos (5%). Total sold its share of interest in the field to Sonangol for $750m in February 2014. The block was earlier awarded to the partners during Angola’s 2006 licensing round.
Eni approved the final investment decision for the project in November 2013. Major contracts for the project were awarded in 2014 and early 2015, and first production was achieved in February 2017.
Discoveries at Angola’s Block 15/06 East Hub fields
The Cabaça North discovery was made in October 2009 with the drilling of the Cabaça Norte-1 well at a water depth of 500m and to a total depth of 2,830m. It encountered oil pay in sands with excellent reservoir characteristics and produced oil at rates exceeding 6,500 barrels of oil per day (bpd) during production tests.
The Cabaca South-East discovery was made in July 2010 with the drilling of the Cabaca South East-1 well at a water depth of 470m. The well encountered oil-bearing reservoirs of the Miocene age, having total gross thickness of 450m.
Eni further appraised the Cabaca South-East discovery in September 2010 by drilling the Cabaça South East-2 well at a water depth of 470m. The well flowed high-quality 34° API oil at rates of approximately 7,000bpd, increasing the initial estimate of the discovery’s reserves by at least 30%.
Eni’s East Hub reserves
Combined oil reserves of the two discoveries are estimated at approximately 230 million barrels. A peak production capacity of approximately 17,000bpd net is expected to be achieved from the project in 2017. The start of production from the field will increase the production level at Block 15/06, which also accommodates the West Hub Development Project, to 200,000bpd.
East Hub Development Project details
The first phase of the three-phased project involves the development of the Cabaça South-East discovery where ten subsea wells were drilled. The Cabaça North discovery is being developed in the next phase, increasing the total number of subsea wells to 23.
Kaombo Ultra-Deep Offshore Project involves the development of six of the 12 fields discovered at Block 32 around 260km offshore Luanda, Angola.
The project also involves the development of nearby discoveries, such as the Lira discovery, in later stages for which further detailed studies are expected to be made.
The host platform for the project is a leased FPSO, which was converted from the Armada Ali very large crude carrier (VLCC) tanker (formerly MT Osprey VLCC). The conversion project was completed in 2016.
FPSO for Eni’s Angolan offshore field
The FPSO has a designed crude oil production capacity of 80,000bpd, and a storage capacity of 1.8 million barrels and 120,000bpd of water injection and 120 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas handling capacities.
The living quarters of the vessel provide accommodation facilities for 100 people, and the vessel is moored at a 450m water depth using an external turret mooring system. The vessel’s topsides alone weigh approximately 15,000t.
Contractors involved with the Angolan offshore project
The contract for the chartering, operation and maintenance of the FPSO was awarded to a consortium of Bumi Armada Offshore Holdings (BAOHL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bumi Armada) and Angoil Bumi JV (ABJL, a joint venture of BAOHL, Angoil Exploracao Petrolifera and Cosmarg Limitada) in August 2014. The RM9.6bn (approximately $2.9bn) contract was awarded in August 2014.
Keppel Shipyard, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), performed the FPSO conversion works. Dynamac was awarded a $60m contract in February 2015 to fabricate six topside modules for the FPSO vessel.
FMC Technologies supplied the subsea production systems for the project under a $393m contract.
Cathelco supplied a fore and aft impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system to protect the FPSO’s hull against corrosion. The system integrates a control panel wired to two Cathelco C-Max disc anodes and reference electrodes mounted on port and starboard of the FPSO.
Two diesel-hydraulic driven fire water pumps, each with a capacity of 2.900m³/h at 12-bar discharge pressure, and two in-house diesel generators for the FPSO were supplied by Fischcon.
