Cairn evaluating tender responses for SNE FPSO

London-listed oil and gas company Cairn Energy is evaluating tender responses for the FPSO facility and subsea infrastructure for its SNE field development offshore Senegal ahead of the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase planned for 4Q 2018.

Cairn, as the operator, has a 40% working interest in three blocks offshore Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore and Rufisque Offshore) alongside partners, Woodside 35% WI, FAR 15% WI, and the Senegal National Oil Company, Petrosen 10% WI (Petrosen has the right to increase its equity to 18% on development).

The Sangomar Deep portion of offshore Senegal PSC contains the SNE field.

The SNE field covers a large area of ~350km2 and has two distinct horizons with a stacked series of S400 upper reservoirs overlying S500 lower reservoirs. It is proposed that the SNE field will be developed in a series of phases with the first phase principally targeting the S500 resource with up to 26 subsea oil production, water injection and gas injection wells tied back to an FPSO.

The FPSO, with proposed ~100,000 bopd production capacity, will be located towards the eastern edge of the SNE field in ~800m water depth.

The subsea facilities will be designed to expand to accommodate future phases of SNE development, as well as providing a hub for developing other oil discoveries on the block. First oil is targeted in 2022, with an expectation of up to ~40,000 bopd production net to Cairn on plateau.

In an update on Tuesday, Cairn said that, in the first half of this year, there has been ongoing progress in the delivery of key milestones for the field development plan.

Namely, the Evaluation Report outlining the basis of commerciality of the project was submitted to the Government of Senegal in July. Furthermore, the tender responses for the FPSO facility and supporting subsea infrastructure have been received and are under evaluation and short-listing ahead of FEED planned for 4Q. In parallel with the detailed engineering work, an Environmental and Social Impact assessment study has been submitted and detailed work is underway on the project financing.

Cairn also said that the JV is targeting submission and approval of the development and exploitation plan in 2H 2018. This will outline the full multi-phase development plans and options, including a detailed definition of the first phase. At the same time, formal transfer of operatorship to Woodside is planned in 4Q this year with the Final Investment Decision (FID) expected to follow in 2019.

Australia’s Woodside gained entry into the SNE project back in 2016 after buying a 35 percent interest from ConocoPhillips.

Offshore Energy Today Staff