Global news

Italian oil and gas company Eni has started oil production from its operated Agogo field, located offshore Angola, only nine months after its discovery, as reported by Offshore Energy Today.

Eni announced “a major oil discovery” in Block 15/06, in the Agogo exploration prospect, in Angola’s deep water in March 2019. Eni operates two FPSOs in Block 15/06, the N’Goma in West Hub and Olombendo in East Hub.

The Agogo-1 NFW well, which has led to the discovery, is located approximately 180 kilometers off the coast and about 20 kilometers west from the N’Goma FPSO. The well was drilled by the Poseidon drillship in a water depth of 1636 meters and reached a total depth of 4450 meters.

According to Angola’s National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels’ statement on Thursday, at the moment, the field is producing around 10,000 barrels of oil per day and is projected to reach 20,000 per day in the coming months.

Also recall that Italian oil major Eni and France’s Total were among the successful bidders for rights to develop three offshore blocks in Angola out of 10 auctioned late last year.

The agency said that the achievement was a result of the synergies developed with the N’Goma FPSO. The field is producing as a subsea tie-back to the FPSO.

It is estimated that the field contains 650 million barrels of light oil in place with further upside, confirmed by the Agogo-2, the first appraisal well of the Agogo discovery drilled in July 2019.

The Block 15/06 Joint Venture is composed of Eni (operator, with a 36.8421% stake), Sonangol P&P (36.8421%), and SSI Fifteen Limited (26.3158%).

In a separate statement on Friday, Eni said that the record time set for the field to become operational, nine months after its discovery last March, confirmed its successful endorsement of the fast track model in the development of its discoveries, a strategy based on operational synergies with already existing infrastructure that maximizes projects value.

Oilfield drilling is a process of boring hole into to the earth crust for natural gas and oil. To do this, a long bit attached to a “drilling string” is used. The bit varies in diameter from five to 50 inches. After each section is drilled, a steel pipe slightly smaller than the hole diameter is dropped in and often cement is used to fill the gap.This “casing” with cement is used to give some structural integrity to the hole and to isolated high-pressure areas of rock that can explode if allowed to release.

The drilling process can be liken to using a power drill on a piece of wood. The most major difference is that the he hole is filled with “mud” which is often called “drilling mud”. Drilling mud is a mixture of fluids, solids and, chemicals  that lubricate the bit, whose function is to cut away from the drill face, provide a hydrostatic head that counters the pressure of gas or oil, and provide a physical and chemical means of stabilizing and protecting the rock formation that is being drilled.

Drilling muds can be used in a very wide variety of rock formations and conditions, their specific composition varies from site to site, and also with different depths in the same well. Since offshore oil and gas exploration began, many different types of substances have been, and are being, used in the formulation and modification of drilling muds which includes emulsifiers, lubricants, wetting agents, corrosion inhibitors, surfactants, detergent, caustic soda, salts, and organic polymers, (https://vaporblash.com/2019/12/11/oilfield-drilling-fluids-chemicals-market-2019-2026-forecast-oil-and-gas-shale-gas/ ) drilling muds also consist of gelling and deflocculating agents (bentonite clays) filtration control agents, pH and ion-control substances, barites, biocides, lubricants, defoaming agents, and trace elements of heavy metals (such as arsenic, barium, chromium, cadmium, lead, and mercury) which can be retained in the oilfield environment .

Functions of some of the chemicals listed;

• Clay and stabilizer listed above, reacts with the wells or boreholes water phase of the drilling fluid to improve its stickiness, induce sloughing and increasing its swelling capacity. The stabilizer is designed in a way that it always adheres to the wall surfaces of boreholes and drill cuttings. With this, encapsulation process can effectively seal surfaces and prevent the reactions between the surfaces and the fluid to prevent  undue consequences such as swelling, sticking and sloughing. The aim of this is supposed to boost the stability of the borehole.Eg organophilic clay, bentonite etc.

• Thinners are also referred to as deflocculants. They are thinning agents used to reduce the extent of viscosity or preventing flocculation. Thinners are often incorrectly referred to as dispersants. However, a thinner tend to come in form of low-molecular weight anionic polymer that functions to neutralize the positive charges accumulated on the clay edges. Good examples of thinners include lignosulfates, polyphosphates etc.

• Drilling polymers has high molecular weight fluid with the ability to control the well’s fluid loss and to increase the viscosity. There are over four variants of this chemical which can include polyacrylate, Snergistic polymer, polyglycol, XCD polymer or partly hydrolyzed polyacrylamide.

 Oilfield Chemicals are available at our stores nationwide. Please visit our website www.epoxyoil.com

Ruth Ozichu Yakubu

Production Chemist

Epoxy Oilserv Limited

ruth.yakubu@epoxyoil.com

www.epoxyoil.com

+234-8060907072

A chemical flush is a process where pressure is applied to empty a pipeline using appropriate chemicals to suspend, disperse and remove accumulated materials. After this process, the pipelines are given a final flush with clean water and chemical inhibitors are added to protect the pipelines.

The reason why chemical flushing is been used today is to remove all dirts , debris, oil, grease, rust, scale, slug, that could be found or formed in the pipelines. These deposits or sometime called fouling, needs to be removed time to time to prevent damage and maintain efficiency of operation .During chemical flushing thin layer of surface of pipe wall will remove as well  as all the unnecessary contamination. Chemical cleaning is preferably used compared to the oil flushing because, chemical flushing will reduce the oil flushing cost in term of flushing time and number of oil flushing materials use such filter elements.

The usual chemical flushing involves

• Liquid drain opener (alkaline) as first degreaser to remove grease, oils and fat, alkaline opener also dissolves organic residue and cleaning where harder deposits have occurred.
•  Following this is the liquid drain opener (acid) as second, for neutralizing the caustic remaining on the surfaces of the plant or removing scale build-up. The acidic opener removes mineral deposits in the equipment (especially warm or hot fluid lines).
•  Rust and scale remover which is used in all operations where rust should be removed and avoided to lengthen pipelines life, efficiency and improve looks of metal pipeline,
• Neutralization as third stage, rinsing of the pipeline with demineralized water
• Corrosion inhibitor as final stage. 

During this process temperature and chemical pH level must be carefully monitor and control in order to complete the process with high quality result. Small mistake will cause a lot of problem where the whole process may need to carry out again which not only cost money but time consuming.

Any pipeline, regardless of diameter, requires a large volume of chemicals to be filled and circulated with, to achieve desired results. Special attention has to be paid to the velocity and volume calculations during the pre-engineering phase.

Ruth Ozichu Yakubu

Production Chemist

Epoxy Oilserv Limited

ruth.yakubu@epoxyoil.com

www.epoxyoil.com

+234-8060907072

Maersk Drilling Sign Deals with Halliburton and Petrofac to Deliver Well Services to Seapulse

Offshore drilling contractor Maersk Drilling has signed agreements with Halliburton and Petrofac to collaborate on the exploration program to be delivered under Maersk Drilling’s master alliance agreement with Seapulse, as reported by Offshore Energy Today.

Maersk Drilling and Seapulse signed the master alliance agreement in December 2018 under which Maersk Drilling is responsible for providing fully integrated drilling services, including the provision of drillings rigs and all related services for a global offshore oil and gas exploration program.

Announcing the new agreements with the oilfield services providers on Wednesday, Maersk Drilling said that Petrofac would deliver well management services, and Halliburton would deliver integrated well services, throughout the program.

The Seapulse portfolio spans shallow water and deepwater wells in several regions. Two wells in the UK North Sea have previously been announced as part of the work scope, which is expected to start drilling in the second half of 2020.

Maersk Drilling COO, Morten Kelstrup, said: “We’re thrilled to join forces with Halliburton and Petrofac for this program which breaks new ground in the industry by using a fully integrated service delivery model aimed at eliminating inefficiencies by aligning incentives and removing complexity across the entire value chain. Halliburton and Petrofac bring strong operational expertise and decades of experience in delivering and integrating oilfield services, which will further contribute to the ability to mitigate the operator cost risk associated with exploration drilling whilst we foster new ways of collaborating across the supply chain.”

Nick Shorten, Managing Director for Petrofac’s Engineering and Production Services West business, said: “Petrofac is delighted to be part of this exciting global supply chain collaboration. The aims of the Maersk Drilling and Seapulse alliance closely align with our own operating principles – we very much look forward to working with all parties to deliver effective and technically robust campaigns.”

“This collaborative model aligns with and leverages Halliburton’s proven integration approach that creates value for our global customers both on- and offshore,” said Steve Haden, Senior Vice President of Halliburton Project Management.

CEO and co-founder of Seapulse, Scott Aitken, added: “We are very pleased to see the well delivery model that we have entered into with Maersk Drilling continue to mature with world-class partners. The Seapulse business model leverages Maersk Drilling’s partnerships’ technological and operational expertise to drill and test a statistically relevant exploration portfolio of a scale normally only associated with major oil companies.”