Murphy Oil brings Azurite field on stream

Aug. 11, 2009
Murphy Oil Corp. has started oil production from Azurite field off Congo (Brazzaville) through what it says is the industry’s first floating drilling, production, storage, and offloading facility (FDPSO).

Uchenna Izundu
OGJ International Editor

LONDON, Aug. 11 -- Murphy Oil Corp. has started oil production from Azurite field off Congo (Brazzaville) through what it says is the industry’s first floating drilling, production, storage, and offloading facility (FDPSO).

Azurite is on the Mer Profond Sud (MPS) block in 4,500 ft of water. The FDPSO has storage capacity of 1.3 million bbl of oil and can process 40,000 b/d of oil. Drilling and completion of production and injection wells continue as production ramps up.

Discovered in 2005, Azurite is Murphy Oil’s first operated development in West Africa.

Azurite, with about 75 million bbl of gross oil, was scheduled to come on stream in the second quarter of 2009 (OGJ Online, Apr. 28, 2008).

Murphy Oil operates the block with a 50% working interest. Partners are PA Resources with 35% and Ste. Nationale Petroles du Congo with 15%.

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].