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West Africa Focus for a new phase of West African development projects, but the sizes are reduced with many wells because reservoirs

Exploration is expanding to six, nine wells rather than the are too shallow to turn drill bits from West Africa’s Sierra 30, 40 we’re currently seeing,” says safely and strike oil from a distance.

Leone to Namibia, explains

Jim Tait, FMC Technologies sales “When I think of deeper manager for the Caspian and Africa reservoirs, I do think of the ability

Bruce Nichols, led by region. to have fewer drill centers and sustained high oil prices,

Even Cobalt’s Cameia pre-salt potentially promote a single improving technology, discovery – heralded as possibly the deepwater facility, which could be frst of a new herd of elephant fnds a better answer because you can relative polit ical stability — could have a counterintuitive be right over the wells. This may and a more supportive impact. As big as it could be, it permit lower development and life- operating environment.

could actually mean fewer wells of-feld costs per barrel, offsetting and more centralized production, the higher drilling costs,” says

Cobalt’s potentially huge Cameia experts say. Dennis McLaughlin, a veteran of

C discovery in the deep pre-salt The reason: pre-salt development deepwater development in the Gulf off Angola is one sign. There is deeper and will allow greater of Mexico and off Africa.

are smaller, shallower fnds by directional drilling reach. The “But until you have a real

Eni, Hess, Kosmos and others off post-salt West African geology is application, and run the technical,

Ghana, discoveries that will be tied shallower and has yielded big fnds commercial, risk and timing together around hubs or linked to but has dictated sprawling felds tradeoffs, it’s not so easy to say existing infrastructure to make their production fnancially viable.

Expanding exploration from

Sierra Leone to Namibia, outside the West African offshore oil heartland in the Gulf of Guinea, is stretching the province’s boundaries. Ever-larger production systems under construction by Total and BP are adding infrastructure.

Growing maturity is taking hold off West Africa, and with it will come tighter focus on more effcient, more complete recovery of the oil and gas. And that means more projects of all sizes and new ways of doing things.

“Once the infrastructure is built… we suspect that as Africa moves forward, the elephant projects will begin to slow down, and there’ll be increased focus on smaller satellite projects. We’ll see many more

The Cameia discovery in the deep, pre- salt trend off Angola by Cobalt is one sign of a new phase of West African development.

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