Chevron eyes next Angola oilfield
2006-08-31 19:37
Seoul - US oil firm Chevron Corp is poised to start up its next major Angolan oilfield before the end of this decade after ordering the world's biggest drilling and production platform from a South Korean builder.
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, the world's second-largest shipbuilder, said in a statement on Thursday it had won a 1.22 trillion won order to build the platform for Cabinda Gulf Oil Co Ltd, Chevron's unit in the West African country, by May 2009.
It said the platform would produce 130 000 barrels of oil a day at the Tombua Landana field in Angola's prolific deepwater Block 14, which has yielded nine discoveries since 1997.
Daewoo's announcement was the first public indication of when output will begin and at what rate the field will pump.
Block 14 already hosts two other developments, Kuito and the $2.3bn, 200 000-bpd Benguela-Belize-Lobito-Tomboco (BBLT), which saw first oil in January.
Major investor in Angola
Chevron, which has been in Africa since the early 1900s, is a major investor in Angola, where output from deepwater areas is a key source of new supplies for a tight global market.
The US major operates and owns 31% of Block 14, while state oil firm Sonangol holds 20%, Italy's ENI Angola has 20%, Europe's Total SA has 20% and Portugal's Galp Energia holds 9%.
Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's number two crude producer after Nigeria, is aiming to boost daily output to 2 million barrels by 2008, up from around 1.4 million barrels, which would rank it even with the United Kingdom, where production is in a steep decline.
Its deep offshore waters were hotly contested when exploration began in the late 1990s and have yielded more than half a dozen major finds, making it an attractive destination for oil majors desperate for unfettered access to prime acreage.
In addition to Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp has already launched two platforms on its Kizomba discovery, with two more due before the end of the decade, while Total will add to its Girassol development with a Dalia platform in 2007, the same year BP Plc will start up Plutonia.
- Reuters