Chevron Starts up Angolan Field

Chevron said March 8 that it has launched oil and gas production from the main production facility of the Mafumeira Sul project offshore Angola.

"This milestone supports our priority of completing major projects and improving free cash flow," said Jay Johnson, Chevron's executive vice president for upstream: "The Mafumeira Sul project generates new production and value for Angola, our partners and the corporation."

Located 24 km offshore Angola's northern enclave of Cabinda in 60 meters of water, Mafumeira Sul is the second stage of development of the Mafumeira Field in Block 0. It has a design capacity of 150,000 barrels of liquids and 350mn ft³ natural gas per day. Early production from the project commenced in October 2016 through a temporary production system; ramp-up to full production is expected to continue through 2018. 

Chevron is operator with 39.2% in Mafumeira Sul, partnered by Angolan state producer Sonangol 41%, Total 10% and Eni 9.8%.

Gas from the field will be commercialised through the nearby Chevron-operated onshore 5.2mn mt/yr Angola LNG liquefaction plant at Soyo.

Gorgon T3 due to start this month

Earlier this week Johnson told analysts that Australia's Gorgon train 3 would start up this month, ahead of its 2Q2017 target. The Chevron-led venture's train 2 resumed production in late February after an unscheduled outage lasting a few days. Each of the three trains has 5.2mn mt/yr, for a total of 15.6mn mt/yr.

Mark Smedley