Wintershall Dea, partners begin drilling at Argentina's Fenix gas field

Germany’s Wintershall Dea, along with its partners TotalEnergies and Pan American Energy, has commenced development drilling at the Fenix gas field offshore Argentina, Wintershall Dea announced on 7 June. The consortium's total investment in the development is approximately $700mn.

Noble’s jack-up drilling rig, Regina Allen, has been deployed to initiate the Fenix development drilling programme. Over the next few months, three development wells will be drilled, completed, and brought into production. The gas will be transported via a 24-inch subsea multiphase line to the existing Vega Pleyade platform, located 35 km from Fenix, and from there to the Rio Cullen facilities onshore.

According to Wintershall, Fenix is the largest natural gas field currently being developed off the Argentine coast. The gas field is expected to significantly contribute to the country’s energy matrix and reduce the need for imports, with a planned peak production of around 10mn m³/day of gas.

Fenix is the next gas field to be brought on stream as part of the gas production concession, CMA-1. In this concession, Wintershall Dea and Total Austral (the operator) each hold a 37.5% share, while Pan American Energy holds the remaining 25%.

Currently, the four main gas fields in CMA-1—Canadon Alfa, Aries, Carina, and Vega Pleyade—are producing and already supply 15% of Argentina's natural gas production.