Total has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (EPNL), has obtained the required approvals from the Nigerian government and co-venturers to begin developing the vast offshore Usan field, which it operates.
Several international oil companies share a stake in the Usan development project, including Elf, Chevron, Esso Exploration and Production, and Nexen Petroleum.
Discovered in 2002 in OPL 222, the Usan oil field is located around 100 kilometres offshore, in water depths ranging from 750 to 850 metres.
Proved and probable reserves of the Usan field are expected to be more than 500 million barrels of oil.
Usan is expected to come on stream early in 2012 and to ramp up quickly to plateau production of 180,000 barrels of oil per day. The associated gas will be reinjected in the reservoir.
The field development plan comprises 23 producer wells and 19 water and gas injector wells tied back to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit with a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of oil.
The project introduces a number of technological innovations and builds on Total’s large presence as an operator of deepwater developments in West Africa.
More than 11 million man-hours are planned for the different aspects of the project including engineering, yards, offshore works and management. Nearly half of the 7,500 tonnes of the modules installed on the FPSO will be integrated onsite.
