At last, BP Angola spews forth

PRODUCTION has begun at Greater Plutonio the giant offshore Angola oil field. BP Angola is the Operator and production finally started on October 1. Greater Plutonio consists of five distinct fields discovered in 1999-2001 in water depths of up to 1,450 metres and is the first BP-operated asset in Angola. The Greater Plutonio offshore development area is located 160 kilometres northwest of Luanda and is comprised of the Galio, Cromio, Paladio, Plutonio and Cobalto fields in water depths varying from 1200 to 1450 metres. It will contain 43 wells: 20 producers, 20 water injectors, and 3 gas injectors. The development utilizes a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to process produced fluids and export crude. The FPSO is connected to the wells by a large subsea system. The FPSO is 310 metres in length and has an oil storage capacity of 1.77 million barrels, oil processing of up to 240,000 barrels of oil per day, produced and treated water injection rate of 450,000 barrels per day, and gas handling of up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day. It is held in position by 12 mooring lines connected to anchor piles on the seabed. The heart of the Greater Plutonio subsea system is the longest single riser tower system of its kind in the world. At some 1,258 m, it connects the FPSO to a network of subsea flowline and control systems that include 150 km of flowlines, 9 manifolds and 110 km of instrument and control umbilicals. Many components of the subsea systems, including the riser tower, were constructed and assembled in Angola, including 6 of the subsea manifolds along with the worlds largest CALM (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring) offloading buoy and the first ever Angolan assembled and tested subsea trees. The Greater Plutonio project involves a strong local content component. Several elements of the project were manufactured in Angola, namely the riser tower and six manifolds, including support structure, tees, flowline termination assemblies, installation and mooring piles and the CALM offloading buoy (SBM) all manufactured at the Sonamet yard in Lobito. Algoa (FMC) manufactured 45 permanent guide bases in Luanda and FMC are now assembling most of the subsea trees from "superkits" manufactured abroad. Some of the umbilicals were manufactured by Angoflex in Lobito and the water injection lines were laid by Technip using the new spoolbase in Dande, Bengo province. BP's involvement with Angola goes back to the mid 1970s. During the 1990s, BP made very substantial investments in Angola's offshore oil and it is now an important part of the company's upstream portfolio. BP has interests in four blocks with operated interests in two. Operatorship of Block 18 was transferred to BP Angola (Block 18) BV in May 1999. BP has non-operated interests in Block 15, operated by Esso (Block 15) Limited (BP 26.67 % equity) and in Block 17 operated by Total (BP 16.67 % equity). BP also has a 13.6 % interest in the Angola LNG project. Sorry to bore you all with this detail, but it does all go to show that while the Greenies were wailing about the world running out of oil, BP was quietly going about its business, developing an oilfield that could well turn out to be bigger that that of the North Sea. All goes to show that technology is the friend of man, not the enemy. Later day Luddites take note.