Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
Chevron, which said first oil flow from Agbami field was achieved July 29 from a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, expects initial production to reach more than 100,000 b/d of oil.
It expects production at the field—the largest deepwater discovery in Nigeria—to increase to 250,000 b/d of oil and natural gas liquids by yearend 2009.
Star Deep Water Petroleum signed the agreement in 2005 for the award of the contract for the construction of the FPSO vessel for Agbami to South Korea's Daewoo Shipping & Marine Engineering Corp. in 2005.
In January 2000 then-Texaco Inc.—since acquired by Chevron—announced the completion of testing on the Agbami-2 appraisal well, which confirmed that "the Agbami structure is a giant discovery with potential recoverable reserves in excess of 1 billion boe."
It said that "the well test surpassed expectations and, together with other technical data, suggests that the Agbami discovery likely ranks among the largest single finds to date in deepwater West Africa."
According to Texaco, the Agbami-2 well delineated the discovery announced in January 1999. The initial well, Agbami-1, encountered 420 ft of oil pay in multiple zones. Complete appraisal of the field will require further delineation drilling and technical studies.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
