Equatorial Guinea has joined the ranks of commercial oil producers.
Units of Mobil Corp. and United Meridian Corp., Houston, have started production from Zafiro field off Equatorial Guinea.
Zafiro field is on the 547,000 acre Block B off Bioko Island in the Gulf of Guinea.
The 1 Zafiro well came on line flowing 7,000 b/d of oil less than 18 months after the field's discovery.
Operator Mobil Oil Equatorial Guinea Inc. holds 75% interest in Block B and UMC Equatorial Guinea Corp. 25%.
Production update
Partners at last report had installed flowlines to five wells in the field and planned to drill, complete, and connect three more Zafiro/Opalo development wells to production facilities.
Partners expect oil production of about 40,000 b/d by yearend from the eight subsea wells.
The Mobil-UMC combine credited the speed of Zafiro field's development to an aggressive drilling program and a development scheme based on subsea production facilities tied back via flexible risers to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) system.
Zafiro Producer FPSO, formerly a 1,087 ft, 268,000 dwt crude oil tanker, was converted earlier this year to FPSO service at PMB-Bechtel's Pelican Island fabrication yard, near Galveston Island at the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. Oceaneering Production Systems unit of Oceaneering International Inc., Houston, was the main contractor on the conversion.
The FPSO left for Equatorial Guinea last June (OGJ, June 10, p. 28). The unit can process as much as 80,000 b/d of oil and has storage for about 1.5 million bbl of oil.
Partners offload production from the unit through a floating hose to export tankers.
Estimated total initial development costs of Zafiro field are about $133 million.
Zafiro activity roundup
Mobil and UMC in mid-August said 1 Amatista delineation well had extended the previously announced Zafiro and Topacio discoveries in the Qua Iboe formation, marking the eighth consecutive successful well drilled in the Zafiro/Opalo/Topacio complex.
Partners cased the well to 6,600 ft and suspended operations temporarily, pending installation of completion equipment and flowline.
The 1 Amatista is half way between the Zafiro and Topacio discoveries in a downdip extension that shows Zafiro and Topacio are parts of the same field.
In addition to encountering an oil/water contact in the main field pay zone, 1 Amatista found two other shallower sands within the oil column, which were gas-bearing in previous wells.
Partners deepened 1 Amatista to 11,378 ft to test the Isongo formation. While no productive sands were seen, thick reservoir-quality sands with minor oil and gas shows were found.
Field start-up is expected before the end of August.
The Atwood Eagle drilling rig, which drilled 1 Amatista, was moved 17 miles southwest to drill 1 Azurita, a Qua Iboe exploratory well. The Aleutian Key drilling rig recently spudded the 6 Zafiro development well in Zafiro field.
Mobil in May 1994 acquired an interest in Block B from UMC and became operator in January 1995 after completing the first wildcat.
Partners discovered the Zafiro oil accumulation in March 1995 and declared the field commercial in October 1995.
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