Total reported Friday it has made a final investment decision (FID) for the Moho Nord development in the Moho Bolindo license offshore Republic of Congo.
First oil is expected in 2015 from the $10 billion Moho Nord development, which will consist of the Moho-Bilondo Phase 1bis and Moho Nord project. Oil output from the development is expected to reach 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2017. The FID follows on the Moho Bilondo Phase 1E project, which came on stream in 2008. Total also announced engineering, procurement and construction awards for the project.
The Moho Nord project will target additional reserves in the southern portion of the Phase 1bis license and new reserves in the northern part of the license. Total estimates the additional reserves at approximately 485 million barrels of oil equivalent.
First oil is expected to be achieved from the Phase 1 bis project in 2015 and first oil from the Moho Nord project in 2016, partner Chevron Corp. reported Friday.
As part of the Phase 1bis development, Total will tie back 11 subsea wells in the Miocene to the existing floating production unit (FPU) on location at the field. The FPU's processing capacity will be increased by 40,000 boepd.
Total will also drill 17 subsea wells targeting Miocene reservoirs for the Moho Nord development. These wells will be tied back to a new FPU. Seventeen more subsea wells targeting Albian reservoirs will be developed from a newbuild tension leg platform. The new production will be processed on the FPU, which will have 100,000 boepd capacity, before being exported via a new 50-mile pipeline to the onshore Djeno terminal.
The company has taken measures to limit the project's environmental impact, including the elimination of flaring under normal operating conditions and reinjecting all produced water. Total will also promote the use of local content in the project by encouraging development of the regional industrial base.
Moho Nord is located approximately 46 miles (75 kilometers) from Pointe-Noire and 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) west of N'Kossa in 1,476 feet to 3,937 feet (450 meters to 1,200 meters) of water.
Total’s subsidiary Total E&P Congo is operator of the Moho Bilondo license with a 53.5-percent interest. Partners include state-owned Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo with 15 percent and Chevron Overseas Congo with 31.5 percent.
Total E&P Congo operates 10 of the 22 fields developed in the Republic of Congo, accounting for almost 60 percent of the national's oil output. Total's net equity production averaged 113,000 boepd last year.
Most of Total's oil production comes from the deepwater Moho-Bolindo license and the Nkossa oil field. The company also produced 30 million cubic feet per day of natural gas in 2011, which came from associated gas from its oil fields, according to a January 2013 analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Congo's oil production rebounded from 2008 to 2010 thanks to new projects coming online, mainly from Congo's first deepwater oil field, Moho-Bilondo.
