First oil flows from Hail field offshore Abu Dhabi

Spanish oil and gas company Cepsa and Japanese petrochemicals firm Cosmo Oil have started oil production from the Hail oil field offshore Abu Dhabi. 

Hail oil field was put into production on Tuesday, November 7 in the Abu Dhabi Oil Company (ADOC) concession by Cepsa and Cosmo Oil, through the company Cosmo Abu Dhabi Energy Exploration & Production, which is one of ADOC’s shareholders with a 64.4% stake.

Cepsa and Cosmo created Cosmo Abu Dhabi Energy Exploration & Production three years ago to operate in Abu Dhabi and look for new opportunities in the United Arab Emirates.

Hail is the fourth offshore crude oil field to start production in the ADOC concession in addition to the Mubarraz field, Umm Al-Anbar field and Neewat Al- Ghalan fields. All of them are located in shallow waters to the West of Abu Dhabi and were put into production in 2017, 1973, 1989, and 1995, respectively.

The Hail field will allow Cepsa to significantly increase its production. The Hail field is adjacent to the existing fields, making maximum use of existing facilities. It is located on an artificial island communicated via subsea pipeline to current production and export facilities on Mubarraz Island. The development also includes ten producing wells.

The Hail oil field was acquired when the existing oil fields renewed their concessions for 30 years on December 12, 2012. After the acquisition of the concession, ADOC carried out the analysis process such as the 3D seismic survey and drilling of the appraisal wells, reclamation of the new artificial island and construction of facilities, as well as drilling new wells.

Cepsa holds a 20% stake in Cosmo Abu Dhabi Energy Exploration & Production and the other 80% interest belongs to Cosmo Oil. Both Cepsa and Cosmo form part of Mubadala Investment Company’s portfolio (Cepsa 100% and Cosmo 20.8%).

According to Cosmo’s statement on Wednesday, the production from the Hail field is the first oil field development in the Middle East by a Japanese operator since 2011.

Cosmo added that Hail oil field production volume was estimated to be equivalent to that of the existing oil fields.