PLANS SHAPING FOR DEVELOPMENT OFF SOUTH AFRICA

A.D. Koen
Senior Editor-News

Bredasdorp Basin Discoveries (143972 bytes)

Soekor (Pty.) Ltd., Cape Town, has begun honing plans to start production from South Africa's first commercial oil field.

If work goes as expected, oil could start flowing in commercial volumes by January 1996 from E-BT field, in about 387 ft of water in the Bredasdorp basin about 60 miles off the tip of South Africa.

Meantime, Soekor in February said 23 companies bought packages of data detailing offshore acreage included in South Africa's current licensing round.

The tender began officially Oct. 5, 1994, with Soekor seeking bids from private companies for exploration rights on 15 tracts covering more than 231,000 sq km on South Africa's continental shelf (OGJ, Dec. 5, 1994, p. 34).

WHAT'S NEXT FOR E-BT

The decision to move ahead with development of E-BT field hinges on approval of a final agreement between E-BT partners-Soekor and Engen Ltd., Cape Town-and the Oceaneering Production Systems (OPS) unit of Oceaneering International Inc., Houston.

Soekor in a January letter of intent offered OPS the opportunity to develop and produce E-BT and several adjacent fields (OGJ, Jan. 30, p. 108). Soekor holds an 80% interest in E-BT and Engen 20%.

Engen is an integrated South African oil company formed through consolidation of Trek Beleggings Ltd. and Mobil Oil Southern Africa (Pty.) Ltd.

Before committing to final terms, OPS is calculating detailed E-BT development costs under a proposed $75 million plan. Talks between E-BT partners and OPS are expected to result in a definitive agreement by mid-March.

Preliminary plans call for E-BT to be developed with two predrilled subsea wells tied back to a floating production system (FPS). OPS is to play an expanded contractor's role in the project, providing a mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) to be the heart of the FPS and procuring, installing, and operating nearly all other production system components.

Once a final agreement is in place, Soekor and Engen estimate E-BT production could begin in about 7 months.

FIELD DETAILS

E-BT is among more than a dozen offshore oil and gas fields found since 1987 on the southwest flank of the Bredasdorp basin. It lies about 42 miles southwest of Soekor's F-A gas field, South Africa's first producing field.

E-BT's main productive interval occurs at about 7,595 ft subsea and consists mainly of Cretaceous marine turbidite sandstone. In all Seeker has recorded 20 gas and nine oil discoveries off southern South Africa, mostly in the Bredasdorp basin, where Soekor's oil and gas activity has been centered since 1980.

Bredasdorp covers about 18,000 sq km between the Infanta and Agulhas arches. It is one of a series of en echelon sub-basins making up the Outeniqua basin, one of South Africa's three main offshore tectonostratigraphic zones.

The Outeniqua basin wraps around South Africa's southern coast on the continental shelf between Orange basin on the west and Durban and Zululand basins on the east.

Reservoir sandstones occur within Bredasdorp's drift succession in submarine fan-channel turbidite complexes, emplaced during Aptian and Albian lowstands (OGJ, Dec. 6, 1993, p. 38). Five source rocks associated with highstands have been found in Bredasdorp's drift succession.

Porosity in Bredasdorp reservoirs often is secondary in origin, with values of 13-21%. Permeabilities have been recorded as high as 1,200 md but generally average 250 md.

E-BT DEVELOPMENT

Soekor expects E-BT to produce about 20,000 b/d of oil from the two predrilled wells. Production system components are to include equipment to inject as much as 30,000 b/d of produced water into the reservoir. The tentative $75 million development plan represents spending still needed to put the field on production, including:

Converting Sedco's H semisubmersible rig into a floating production system (FPS).
Acquiring and installing all subsea production hardware.
Buying and installing a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy.
Drilling and completing the water injection well and the two predrilled production wells.

Upon conclusion of a final agreement between EBT partners and OPS, Oceaneering is to begin converting Sedco Forex's H semisubmersible rig to mobile production service. Presently berthed at Port Gentile, Gabon, the rig as an MOPU is to be renamed Ocean Developer.

Soekor is a private company financed mostly by the state Under South African law, Soekor holds oil and gas rights to the entire offshore, where is it empowered to regulate and coordinate operations through either subleases or participation agreements.

Although talks are continuing, it appears likely that E-BT production and certain risks will be shared by project participants, including OPS.

OFFSHORE EXPLORATION

Deadline to submit applications for offshore exploration licenses is the end of business Apr. 12, 1995.

Under the timetable disclosed last year, Soekor by mid-June 1995 is to finish evaluating bids and begin negotiating with companies making the best offers. Licensing talks are to end by October, and Soekor is to begin awarding acreage about mid-November.

Despite the short time allowed for companies to review data, Soekor in January decided against extending the deadline for receipt of bids.

Although not specified in its original instructions to bidders, Soekor has asked applicants to include with their bids whatever detailed exceptions they might have to provisions in the model licensing contract. Also, if an applicant fails to indicate which of the three copies of its bid should be considered the original, Soekor will arbitrarily assign original status to one of the copies.