Senegal SNE Plan Submitted
UK independent producer Cairn Energy said October 25 that it has submitted the development and exploitation plan for the SNE oil field offshore Senegal to the government there, on behalf of the SNE joint venture.
Cairn also announced that its Australian partner Woodside has exercised its option to become operator of the SNE field development. "Work is already well underway to facilitate transfer of operatorship which is now subject only to government consent," it added.
Cairn is current operator with 40%, alongside Woodside 35%, FAR 15% and Senegal state oil company Petrosen 10% - which has the right to increase its equity to 18% on development, with others reduced pro-rata.
"First oil targeted in 2022. Following the establishment of oil production, commercial gas sales to Senegal are expected to commence," added Cairn. An investment decision is due next year.
Junior partner FAR, also of Australia, last year referred the earlier sale of a 35% equity stake by ConocoPhillips to Woodside to international arbitration. FAR said it was denied pre-emption rights. A ruling on the referral is still pending.
FAR noted that the SNE plan "outlines the full field multi-phase development of oil and gas and details how the field will be developed in a series of phases with plans for about 500mn bbls of oil to be developed with a plateau production of 100,000 b/d oil.
"The first phase of oil development will principally develop the S500 resource with up to 23 subsea oil production, water injection and gas injection wells tied back to a floating production, storage and offtake facility (FPSO). Following the establishment of oil production, gas will be produced," noted FAR.
"The FPSO [floating production ship] will also include provision for future gas export to shore for domestic supply," it added.
The joint venture expects an approval decision from government later this year and to take Final Investment Decision in 2019.
Tender responses for the FPSO facility and supporting subsea infrastructure have been received by the joint venture, noted FAR, and are under evaluation and short listing ahead of front-end engineering and design (Feed) entry planned for later this year.