E&P Highlights: Oct. 23, 2023

From finds in China and the Caribbean to an ongoing decommissioning project offshore Western Australia, below is a compilation of the latest headlines in the E&P space. 

CNOOC Reports Large CBM Discovery Onshore China

CNOOC Ltd. found over 110 Bcm of proved gas in place with its onshore Shenfu deep coalbed methane (CBM) discovery in China, the company announced Oct. 22.

The Shenfu deep CBM field is located in Yulin, Shaanxi Province at the eastern edge of Ordos Basin. The discovery well SM2-33-CH1 encountered 16.5 m of coal seam at a burial depth of approximately 2,011 m, which tested to produce approximately 19,000 cm/d after fracturing operations. 

In 2021, CNOOC discovered 101 Bcm of gas in place at its Linxing discovery in the Shanxi Province.

Tango FLNG Heads to Congo

The Tango floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) and Excalibur floating storage unit (FSU) vessels sailed away from Dubai for Congo’s offshore, Eni and Exmar announced on Oct. 21. 

The Eni-operated LNG project in the Marine XII block offshore Congo is slated to begin production in December 2023. 

The Tango FLNG unit has a liquefaction capacity of 1 Bcm per annum of gas and will be moored 3 km offshore, along with the Excalibur FSU vessel upon their arrival in Congo.

A second FLNG vessel with a capacity of approximately 3.5 Bcm per annum of gas is under construction and will begin production in 2025.

At plateau, the Marine XII projects will reach 4.5 Bcm per annum of gas liquefaction capacity with zero routine gas flaring. 

Exmar was the engineering, procurement and conversion (EPC) contractor for Tango FLNG and Excalibur FSU. Exmar also designed the mooring system and performed the refurbishments on both vessels at Dry Docks World yard in Dubai. Exmar built and owned Tango FLNG before agreeing in 2022 to sell the unit to Eni. Exmar is providing the Excalibur FSU on a long-term charter and will be responsible for all terminal operations on the Congo LNG Project. 

Glaucus-1 Well Confirms Gas in Colombian Caribbean

Ecopetrol S.A. said Oct. 19 the deepwater Glaucus-1 well operated by Shell has verified the presence of natural gas in the southern Colombian Caribbean.

The well is 75 km off the Caribbean coast in 2,340 m water depth.

Shell operates the COL-5 block containing the Glaucus-1 well with 50% interest on behalf of partner Ecopetrol with the remaining 50%.

Woodside Removes Nganhurra RTM 

Woodside Energy announced Oct. 20 it had safely removed the Nganhurra Riser Turret Mooring (RTM) that carried production from the Enfield oil field offshore Western Australia to an FPSO.

The heavy lift vessel Heerema Aegir, with three supporting tugs, lifted the 2,500 tonne RTM onto a 120-m barge for transit to the Australian Marine Complex near Perth, where it will be cleaned and deconstructed in preparation for recycling and reuse. According to Woodside, more than 95% of the Nganhurra RTM will be recycled or re-used.

The Nganhurra RTM is about 83 m long and brought subsea production lines from the Enfield oil field to the FPSO. Enfield ceased production in November 2018, and the RTM has been removed as part of decommissioning activities at the field, which also includes the permanent plugging and abandonment of 18 former production wells.  

Petrobras Taps Miros for OSD System 

Petrobras awarded Miros, through local partner Belga Marine, a contract to update the Brazilian company’s existing oil spill detection efforts, Miros announced Oct. 23.

As part of the development project, the Miros system will be matured and installed with a cloud-based add-on to the monitoring software currently in use offshore Brazil, allowing data to be shared with multiple stakeholders in real-time.

CGG Opens UK HPC Hub

CGG opened a new high-performance computing (HPC) hub in the U.K., the company announced Oct. 19. 

The U.K. HPC Hub has an initial capacity of 100 petaflops, bringing the company’s global total to 500 petaflops. The environment features CGG’s proprietary immersion cooling infrastructure and uses 100% renewable energy.