Woodside aiming at SNE operatorship prior to FID

Australian energy firm Woodside is targeting first oil from its recently acquired SNE field in Senegal for 2021 at the earliest.

The company on Wednesday confirmed two appraisal wells would be drilled in Senegal in 2017 to provide greater understanding of reservoir connectivity and of the likely development concept.

As Offshore Energy Today reported in January, Cairn, the operator of the project has already started drilling at the project, using the Stena DrillMax drilling rig.

As a matter of fact, the company CEO Peter Coleman said the drilling has already started, as well.

“At the SNE oil field in Senegal, we have commenced a two well appraisal campaign to improve our understanding of the reservoir and inform development planning,” Coleman said on Wednesday.

Woodside bought its Senegal assets in 2016 from ConocoPhillips for $350 million. The SNE discovery has been estimated by Woodside to contain 560 MMbbl of recoverable oil at the 2C confidence level. It was one of the world’s largest oil discoveries in 2014.

Providing the expected first oil estimate, Woodside said it could start flowing between 2021 and 2023. Woodside said the estimated plateau production rate would be between 100.000 and 120.000 barrels oil per day.

While it provided an estimate for the first oil date, the Final Investment Decision (FID) has yet to be made. The Australia company said it plans to become the operator of the field prior to the FID.

Currently, Cairn is the operator with a 40% in the three blocks offshore Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore, Rufisque Offshore) and is working with partners: Woodside 35%, FAR Ltd 15%, and Petrosen, the Senegal National Oil Company with 10%.

While the final investment decision has yet to be made, the development concept has been shared. It includes a development by subsea wells linked to an FPSO.

Offshore Energy Today Staff