Kosmos to accelerate off West Africa

Dallas-based Kosmos Energy is looking to drill “the industry’s most prospective exploration wells,” as the company moves towards its second phase of exploration offshore Mauritania and Senegal.

Map of the Greater Tortue area, from Kosmos.

“With our strategic partnership with BP in Mauritania and Senegal, the company is well positioned to deliver sustainable growth through the delivery of the Tortue gas development,” says Andrew G. Inglis, chairman and CEO. “Looking ahead, 2017 promises to be a transformational year as we plan to drill some of the industry’s most prospective exploration wells in our second phase of exploration targeting liquids offshore Mauritania and Senegal.”

In December 2016, Kosmos entered a partnership with supermajor BP with the anticipation to advance the development of the discovered gas resources offshore Mauritania and Senegal, accelerate a multi-well exploration program to test the basin’s liquids potential and further strengthen Kosmos’ balance sheet by reducing its capital expenditure requirements and provide funding for the area’s exploration and development program over the near- to medium-term.

Seismic acquisition over Blocks C6 and C12 in Mauritania began in January 2017 with completion expected in Q1 2017.

During Q4, Kosmos also began 3D seismic surveys over Blocks C8 and C13, offshore Mauritania, which completed in January 2017.

At the Tullow Oil-operated TEN project, offshore Ghana, Kosmos says that the Jubilee FPSO turret remediation work is progressing, and the FPSO is expected to be spread-moored on its current heading by March 2017.

This work will allow the tugboats currently required to hold the vessel on a fixed heading to be removed, which should simplify the current operation. Furthermore, a second DP shuttle tanker has been procured and is in the field in order to increase the efficiency of offloading operations, says Kosmos.

According to the company, the next phase of the remediation work involves modifications to the turret for long-term spread-moored operations. At present, the partnership is evaluating options to select the optimal long-term orientation and to determine if a rotation of the FPSO is necessary. This evaluation is ongoing amongst the partnership and the government of Ghana, and final decisions and approvals are expected in 1H 2017. A facility shutdown of up to 12 weeks may be required during 2017. However, significant efforts are ongoing within the partnership to reduce the duration of the shutdown.

First oil from the TEN project was achieved in August 2016. 

Read more:

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Video: Tullow's TEN delivers first oil

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