Italy’s ENI starts oil production offshore Angola

ENI, Italian energy major and Angolan state company Sonangol have started oil production from the Ochigufu project, in Block 15/06 of Angola’s deep offshore, ENI said.

The field will add 25,000 barrels to the current production levels.

According to ENI, the Ochigufu field is located in 1,300 meters below the surface in Angola’s deep offshore, approximately 150 kilometers west of Soyo and 380 kilometers northwest of the capital Luanda.

The wells are connected by the underwater Sangos production system and from there tied into the N’Goma FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading) vessel in the West Hub of Block 15/06 (ENI 36,84%, Operator; Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção 36,84%; SSI Fifteen Limited 26,32%), ENI said.

Oil production will start-up on March 16, a year and a half year after the Plan of Development was first presented, is the first for ENI in 2018 as well as the first start-up of the year in Angola, the Italian company said, adding that it represents a further step in the development of the prolific Block 15/06, where ENI discovered over 3 billion barrels of oil in place and 850 million barrels of reserves. These discoveries were then developed quickly and efficiently, with the sequential start-up of the Sangos field in 2014, Cinguvu in 2015, Mpungi and Mpungi North in 2016, East Hub in 2017 and now Ochigufu.

According to ENI, the subsequent start-up in this block in 2018 will be the UM8 reservoir in East Hub and the Subsea Boosting System for the Mpungi field, while the Vandumbu field in the West Hub is expected to start production in early 2019. These three start-ups will increase overall production by a further 30,000 barrels.

ENI has been present in Angola since 1980 through its subsidiary ENI Angola. Equity production amounts to 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.