Page 25: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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Deepwater drilling is back and targeting ever deeper waters, from

South Africa to Pakistan. n Deep

Elaine Maslin takes a look.

faster well completions, phased developments, better project be the deepest water well drilled to date. Block 48 is in the execution and lower rig/service sector costs. Lower Congo Basin, some 400 kilometers northwest of Lu-

Exploration successes, particularly in Guyana, where more anda and 200 kilometers West of Soyo onshore facilities. than 5 billion barrels has been found since 2015, with break- Success in Block 48 would come hot on the heels of Total’s even oil prices in the $30s/barrel, is also driving interest. Ac- successful Brulpadda well offshore South Africa, completed cording to Wood Mackenzie, the number of risky deepwa- in February. A reentry well, Brulpadda-1 is in 1,432 meters ter frontier wells increased from six in 2016 to 21 in 2018, water depth in the frontier Outeniqua basin, 175 kilometers although only two made commercial discoveries and both offshore, and was drilled using Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea were in Guyana. “The reality is that deep water is where the Stavanger semisubmersible rig. Pegged as a play opener, best opportunities are, because of lot of deep water, off the Brulpadda has prospective volumes of around 1 billion BOE.

shelf basins are still relatively lightly explored,” says Wood Total also has its sights on another deepwater target, the Ve-

Mackenzie’s Andrew Latham. nus-1 well in Namibia’s ultra-

While deepwater exploration in 2019 isn’t Production from mature basins deep Block 2913B (2,500-3,250 expected to outstrip 2018, operators are pushing onshore and in shallow water is meters). Venus-1 has potential to the deepwater envelope. In January, Transocean declining, leading operators into be the year’s largest discovery, signed a rig design and construction management deeper waters. “The big untested says Latham. The ultra-deepwa- contract, as well as a ? ve-year drilling contract, prospects happen to be mainly in ter wildcat will target 2 billion with Chevron, for one of two DP ultra-deepwater deep water or countries that are BOE in a giant Cretaceous fan drillships, currently being built at Sembcorp for various reasons more chal- play, close to the South African

Marine’s Jurong shipyard, Singapore. This will be lenging to access. We are seeing maritime boundary. the ? rst ultra-deepwater ? oater rated for 20,000 NOCs explore non-deep water Total is also operator of the psi operations and is expected to start operations and for IOCs that want ready ac- planned Ru? sque Profonde-1 in the Gulf of Mexico in the second half of 2021. cess to opportunities, deep water exploration well offshore Sen-

Expected to be targeting high-pressure, high- is where it is.” egal, which is expected to be in pressure resources, the drillship will feature dual Total is leading this game by a about 3,000 meters water depth. margin. “Most people trans? xed 20,000 psi blowout preventers. by the success of ExxonMobil in GULF OF MEXICO

Guyana and, before that, Eni in The US Gulf of Mexico is in

Mediterranean,” says Latham. But, he says, Total is clearly a many ways an established basin, but there are big new plays major player in this area. “Total has quickly been getting in- being proven and tested – in deep water. “The last couple of volved in a string of discoveries, both non-operated, including years has seem some tremendous success in the Gulf of Mex-

Ballymore in the US Gulf of Mexico (operated by Chevron), ico, including the Whale and Ballymore discoveries, driving

Calypso in Block 6 offshore Cyprus (operated by Eni), and its further interest,” says Latham. own. For a lot of our ‘wild cats to watch’ this year, their name Shell made the Whale discovery in 2017, in 2,400 meters keeps coming up.” water depth, in the Wilcox formation in the Perdido Fold Belt, in Alaminos Canyon Block 772, adjacent to Shell’s Silver-

AFRICA tip ? eld and about 16 kilometers from the Perdido platform.

Indeed, Total is leading the pack in African deepwater ex- Chevron’s Ballymore ? nd (in which Total is a partner), mean- ploration. While West Africa hasn’t been as busy as it used to while, was made in 1,992 meters water depth in the Jurassic be, it is due to be home to Total’s ultra-deepwater exploration Norphlet play using Paci? c Drilling’s Sharav deepwater drill- well on Block 48, which is Angola’s current most outboard ship. “Those two successes in last 18 months have really fo- license and a potential play-opener. At 3,600 meters, it would cused attention on the Gulf of Mexico and we expect we will

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