Angola: Total Inaugurates Pazflor

The giant Pazflor development, located some 150 kilometres offshore Luanda,Angola, was inaugurated today at a ceremony attended by José Botelho de Vasconcelos, Angola’s Minister of Petroleum, Manuel Vicente, Chairman and CEO of Sonangol, Christophe de Margerie, Chairman and CEO of Total, Yves-Louis Darricarrère, President of Exploration & Production at Total; and representatives of Total and the local authorities.

“We are very proud to be inaugurating Pazflor today. With this bold project, Total has pushed back the boundaries of technology. I would like to congratulate all of our teams for making it possible to successfully complete one of the world’s most outstanding oil developments. I would also like to thank our concession holder Sonangol and our partners for their support. Following on from Girassol and Dalia, Pazflor is a new chapter in the remarkable twinned story of Total, its contractors and Angola, allowing us to successfully pursue the Block 17 adventure” Christophe de Margerie commented during the ceremony.

The field came on stream on the 24th of August. Output will reach 220,000 barrels per day and will make Total the leading oil operator in Angola and the African deepwater industry. This position should be cemented when the CLOV project begins production. CLOV was launched in 2010 with the award of the main contracts. This development will result in the installation of a FPSO with a production capacity of 160 kb/d. Start-up of production is expected in 2014.

Pazflor comprises a vast subsea gathering network, the most complex ever built in Angola: 180 kilometres of lines tying in 49 subsea wells, 10,000 metric tons of subsea equipment and the giant Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Held in position by 16 subsea mooring connectors, with its 325 metres long, 62 metres wide and a weight of more than 120,000 metric tons, the FPSO is the largest in the world. It can store up to 1.9 million barrels of oil that is then exported to tankers via an offloading buoy.

Sonangol is the concession holder for Block 17, which is operated by Total E&P Angola, a wholly owned Total subsidiary, with a 40% interest. The other partners are Statoil ASA (23.33%), Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited (20%) and BP Exploration (Angola) Ltd (16.67%).

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Offshore Energy Today Staff , November 22, 2011; Image: Total