By Dipo Olowookere
The management of Total SA has announced the commencement of oil production from the Egina field, located in around 1,600 meters of water depths, 150 kilometres off the coast of Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, January 2, 2019, the company said oil production started oat the oilfield on Saturday, December 29, 2018.
Total, which has been present in Nigeria for over 50 years, both in upstream and downstream activities, disclosed at plateau, the Egina field will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, representing about 10 percent of Nigeria’s production.
“Total is proud to deliver a project of this size under the initial budget and to contribute to the development of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by generating employment as well as building industrial capability.
“Egina will significantly boost the group’s production and cash flow from 2019 onwards, and benefit from our strong cost reduction efforts in Nigeria where we have reduced our operating costs by 40 percent over the last four years,” stated Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production. “Furthermore, some upside potential nearby remains to be developed and we are studying in particular Preowei discovery tie-back to the Egina FPSO.”
The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit used to develop the giant Egina field is the largest one Total has ever built.
This project has also involved a record level of local contractors. Six of the 18 modules on the FPSO were built and integrated locally, and 77 percent of hours spent on the project were worked locally.
Startup has been achieved close to 10 percent below the initial budget, which represents more than $1 billion of CAPEX savings, due in particular to excellent drilling performance where the drilling time per well has been reduced by 30 percent.
Initially discovered in 2003, the Egina field is the second development in production on the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 following the Akpo field, which started-up in 2009.
The Preowei field is another large discovery made on this prolific block for which an investment decision is scheduled for 2019. Total Upstream Nigeria Limited operates OML 130 with a 24 percent interest, in partnership with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), South Atlantic Petroleum – SAPETRO Ltd. (15 percent), CNOOC E&P Nigeria Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited (45 percent) and Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (16 percent).
