In an interview with Offshore Network, Geraldo Ramos, Senior Production Engineer at Angola’s National Oil Company, Sonangol EP, discussed the future of Angolan oil production, highlighting that Enhanced Oil Recovery is the key area of future development for the country.
With production decline a common challenge to offshore production in mature fields globally, operators in West Africa are taking advantage of innovative technical developments in enhanced oil recovery techniques to recover the maximum from their existing oil reserves.
In this concept, and despite its recent offshore pre-salt discoveries which should allow Angola to maintain its status as Africa’s second largest oil producer, Sonangol EP sees the need to ensure additional reserves are extracted from existing wells.
Starting, Mr. Ramos noted that Angola’s offshore production in 2018 will be formed on the basis of several factors, such as oil price, as many projects suffered from the dwindling oil price in the market. Additional factors include the operational cost, the president of Angola’s recent decree to revitalise the oil and gas industry, the attitude of Sonangol’s new Board of Administration, as well as the interaction between the new board and operators and service companies within the PSA (Production Sharing Agreement) contract or joint venture contract.
Although there are a lot of opportunities in Angola for both EOR and deep and ultra-deep water development, Enhanced Oil Recovery is seen as the main aspect of economic development that the country should rely on, as it can enhance oil production, by recovering 1% or 2% oil daily, Mr. Ramos stressed, adding that these fields provide less risk and uncertainty, when compared to the green or new fields.
Namely, EOR appears a safer option than green fields or deep-water and ultra-deep-water, where it becomes more difficult to discover and develop new oil fields, he explained. In addition, the current oil price is another constraint to developing green oilfields in deep and ultra-deep water.
Speaking on his current EOR project on Angola oilfields, he further emphasized that since the country’s first achieved oil in 1955, the majority of actual production has come from offshore oilfields varying from shallow to ultra-deep operations, while the type of oil has ranged from light to heavy oil.
“And we know worldwide oil recovery from secondary recovery is about 1/3 of OOIP. This implies that approximately 60 to 70% of the oil still remains in place. Using EOR, Angola can recover more than 50% of the OOIP,” he said.