Total started up production from the giant Egina field located 150 kilometers offshore Nigeria, the company announced Wednesday.
At a depth of 1,600 meters, the field will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day at plateau, which represents about 10 percent of Nigeria’s production, according to Total's statement. Production from the field began on Dec. 29, 2018, it said.
According to the press release, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit used to develop the field is the largest that Total has ever built, and the start-up has been achieved close to 10 percent below the initial budget, which represents capital expenditure savings of more than $1 billion.
This is 'due in particular to excellent drilling performance where the drilling time per well has been reduced by 30 percent,' the statement added.
Arnaud Breuillac, president of Exploration and Production at Total, said they were proud to deliver a project of this size under the initial budget and to contribute to the development of Nigeria's oil and gas sector by generating employment as well as building industrial capability.
'Egina will significantly boost the group's production and cash flow from 2019 onwards, and benefit from our strong cost reduction efforts in Nigeria where we have reduced our operating costs by 40 percent over the last four years,' he said.
'Furthermore, some upside potential nearby remains to be developed and we are studying in particular [the] Preowei discovery tie-back to the Egina FPSO,' he added.
According to the statement, initially discovered in 2003, the Egina field is the second development in production on the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 following the Akpo field, which started up in 2009. The Preowei field is another large discovery made on this prolific block for which an investment decision is scheduled for 2019, it said.
Total Upstream Nigeria Limited operates OML 130 with a 24 percent interest, in partnership with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), South Atlantic Petroleum - SAPETRO Ltd. (15 percent), CNOOC E&P Nigeria Limited, a wholly- owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited (45 percent) and Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (16 percent).
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr