Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - statoil

Statoil recently increased the estimates for their Campos Basin pre-salt O&G discoveries up to a substantial total of 1.24 billion barrels boe. Consequently Statoil has also increased its optimism for the geologically similar plays it has in Angola. Not only are the cross ocean plays geologically similar but they are also located along the same longitude. Both pre-salt geological formations off the Brazilian and West African coasts have their origins in common, something that goes back around 120 million years ago, when ancient Gondwana split into what is now known as South America and Africa. The pre-salt reservoirs on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are expected to contain large quantities of light oil.

Last Month the DOF Group named on the largest anchor handling tug vessel (AHT) ever built in Brazil, the Skandi Iguaçu. The vessel has over 32,000 BHP installed and bollard pull of more than 300 tons. Having been built at the STX OSV shipyard accros the bridge from the city of Rio de Janeiro, in Niteroi, the vessel will be ready for delivery to Petrobras three to five months in advance of contract requirement. Skandi Iguacu was ordered from STX OSV shipyard, with financing from the Brazilian Merchant Marine Fund through the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank). The Skandi Iguaçu is part of a new generation of high powered anchor handling vessels, designed for operations across a wide range of deepwater depths and environmental conditions.

The Marlim Field in the Campos Basin is the host for the world´s first operational system for deepwater subsea separation of heavy oil and water including the vital water reinjection to boost production in this mature Brazilian oil field and may be a key factor in expanding the production life of other mature fields in Brazil. Marlim is located in the north-eastern part of the Campos Basin, about 110km offshore of Rio de Janeiro, in water depths ranging from 650m to 2,600m (2,100 to 8,500ft). It has some 102 production wells, 50 injection well and 8 floating production units (FPU), devoted to the extraction of O&G. Marlim as a mature field approaching 20 years in operation…

Chinese companies such as Sinopec, Sinochem, CNOOC, CSSC are actively pursuing partnerships worldwide, in Brazil this effort is particularly noticeable through recent partnerships with O&G players such as Petrobras, Statoil and Repsol.In the shipbuilding business news of some form of partnership between CSSC and local builders is expected for the near future as the local shipbuilding capabilities expand. In the O&G industry, Sinopec just recently announced its partnership agreement with Spanish operator Repsol. The agreement represented a capital increase of around 7 billion for Repsol Brasil, increasing Repsol Brasil´s total capital to around 17.8 billion. With this agreement 60% of Repsol Brasil still belongs to Repsol, while 40% now belongs to Sinopec.

After tests the diverless hot tap proved to be interesting for deep water and shallow water operations.During early August 2009 the world’s first diverless hot tap operation on a pressurised pipeline was performed by Statoil on the Ormen Lange field in the Norwegian Sea. This was the catalyst for the development of the world’s only remote hot tapping machine. “Connecting a pipe to an existing deepwater line would historically mean shutting down and draining the pipeline, cutting into it, adding a special tee spoolpiece and welding it or securing it in place, ensuring the seal is leak-tight. All the water in the pipe would then have to be displaced before the line could come back onstream.

The purpose of the Geoprober Drilling System (GDS) is to reduce the cost of acquiring G&G data for exploration activity in deepwater by 50%.They plan to achieve this by establishing a well in a one trip operation. This speeds up operations and improves data acquisition options and reduces the environmental impact of exploration. Geoprober Drilling was established in 2004 as a new kind of data acquisition drilling contractor, specialising in deep water exploration in areas such as West Africa, Brazil, India and the Far East. Geoprober is currently developing a deep water exploration drilling system deployed from a mono-hull vessel on a (JIP) Joint Industry Project funded by Chevron and StatoilHydro.