Project Profile
Value: US$12 billion
Location: 70 miles (113 km) off the coast of the western Niger Delta region
Reserves: 3.2 billion Barrels OIP
Production: 192,500 bpd estimate* (Shell says 205kbpd, Total says 180kbpd)
FPSO: capacity to produce >200,000 barrels of oil and 150 mmscf per day
Water Depth: 1,245 metres
Start-up Year: 2021-2022
The project will see a standalone development or will be tied back to the Bonga FPSO. The project may also be developed together with Aparo. The Bonga Southwest is estimated to have recoverable reserves of nearly one billion barrels of oil and is expected to deliver 190,000 bpd.
The field is found in 1,245 metres of water depths. The field straddles Shell’s OML 118 and Chevron’s OPLs 249 and 213, with the prospect being known as Bonga Southwest in the former and Aparo in the latter two. The Aparo Field and the Bonga SW Field share a common geologic structure and are planned to be developed jointly. The structure lies 70 miles (113 km) off the coast of the western Niger Delta region. The proposed development plan involves subsea wells tied back to an FPSO vessel. The project entered the front-end engineering and design phase in early 2013.
In October, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Compan (SNEPCo) started production from the Bonga Phase 3 project. Bonga Phase 3 is an expansion of the Bonga Main development, with peak production expected to be some 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent. This will be transported through existing pipelines to the Bonga floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, which has the capacity to produce more than 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day.
FPSO
As of February 2017, Doris Engineering and Lagos-based Netco have yet to complete the front-end engineering and design work on the FPSO. This FEED work was originally due to complete this summer but appears to have slipped into the third quarter of 2017 or even the fourth quarter. Currently Shell and its joint partners have launched a tender for the EPC work on the FPSO.
A final investment decision is targeted for 2018, with first oil flowing in 2021 or 2022.
The FPSO aims to exploit around 800 million barrels of recoverable oil from an oil-in-place resource of about 3.2 billion barrels.
Operators:
Shell: Operator with 55% interest
Total: 12.5% interest
ENI: 12.5% interest
ExxonMobil: 20% interest
Contractors:
Deepwater Consultant Alliance: Consultancy services
Doris Engineering: FPSO FEED
Lagos-based Netco: FPSO FEED