First oil flows from development project off Gabon

Oslo-listed oil and gas E&P company BW Energy has achieved the first oil from its first well in a multi-well drilling campaign offshore Gabon.

BW Energy announced the first oil from the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development in the Dussafu licence offshore Gabon on Monday, 10 April 2023. The company explains that the production performance from the first well has been in line with expectations and is currently stabilised at approximately 6,000 barrels per day. 

As a reminder, the timeline for the first oil from the Hibiscus/Ruche development was bumped to the end of the first quarter of 2023 last year, rather than the previously anticipated date in late 2022, due to a potential change in the schedule of Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig, which the firm hired for its drilling programme.

At the start of April 2023, the company confirmed the drilling and completion operations on the first production well of the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 development campaign, DHIBM-3H well, were completed. Based on BW Energy’s statement at the time, the first oil was expected in early April while the commissioning and start-up of the new gas lift compressor would follow the first oil activities on the FPSO.

According to BW Energy, the DHIBM-3H well was drilled from the BW MaBoMo production facility to a depth of 3,883 metres into Gamba sandstone reservoir on the Hibiscus field. The drilling operations started at the start of the year following the installation of the production facility, risers, and pipelines. The oil produced at Hibiscus/Ruche is transported by pipeline to the FPSO BW Adolo for processing and storage before offloading to oil tankers. 

Carl Krogh Arnet, the CEO of BW Energy, commented: “We delivered first oil from Hibiscus/Ruche on schedule with an excellent HSE performance. This represents the first of several steps on a path for successive production growth in Gabon as we complete the drilling programme and asset upgrades through 2023 and into early 2024.”

Located approximately 20 kilometres northwest of the Tortue field, BW Energy’s Hibiscus/Ruche development project off Gabon targets the Hibiscus and Ruche fields. Initially, this project entails the drilling of up to six horizontal production wells in a 12-well phased programme, which will be connected to a production facility. Four of these six wells will target the Hibiscus field while the remaining two will target the Ruche field.

The company outlines that the Hibiscus/Ruche Phase 1 drilling campaign targets four Hibiscus Gamba and two Ruche Gamba wells, which are expected to add approximately 30,000 barrels per day of total oil production when all wells are completed in early 2024. The wells are drilled by Borr Drilling’s Norve jack-up rig. 

On the other hand, BW Energy highlights that the installation of the gas lift compressor is ongoing on the FPSO BW Adolo with a focus on commissioning and start-up following the first oil from Hibiscus/Ruche, which had priority during the high-activity period onboard the FPSO. 

“Our priority now is to complete start-up activities and stabilise production from the DHIBM-3H well.  In parallel, work progresses towards start-up of the new gas lift compressor to support production from the existing six Tortue wells while also moving ahead with drilling of the next Hibiscus/Ruche production wells as planned,” concluded Carl K. Arnet.