31 January 2013, Sweetcrude, Luanda – British supermajor, BP, has commenced production from one of the world’s largest subsea developments as flows from the PSVM development off Angola got under way on Thursday.
Production from the development in Block 31, operated by the UK firm, is set to hit 70,000 barrels per day of oil before more than doubling over the coming year as two other fields come on line.
PSVM is being exploited with a Modec-owned floating production, storage & offloading (FPSO) vessel, with four different fields involved. The unit has 1.6 million barrels of storage capacity and is the first FPSO to work Angola’s ultra-deepwater plays.
Initial production is coming from the Plutao field before the Saturno, Venus and Marte fields come onstream.
BP chief executive said on Thursday: “PSVM is one of the largest subsea developments in the world and was one of BP’s key project start-ups for 2012 as we grow higher-margin production.
“Over the coming decade, we expect Angola, where we have extensive interests from exploration through to production, to be one of the main hubs delivering growth for BP.”
The development consists of the four fields which were discovered between 2002 and 2004 in water depths of up to 2000 metres. A total of 40 production, gas and water injection wells will be connected to the FPSO through 15 subsea manifolds and associated subsea equipment.
BP operates the block with a 26.67% stake with Sonangol’s stake of 45% split between two divisions, Statoil on 13.33%, Marathon on 10% and SSI 31 on 5%. Sonangol Exploration & Production is the concessionaire.