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2015

Clov

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Success in the ‘Golden Block’ Editorial: Christian Jordan

The deepwater CLOV project, in Block 17 off the coast of Angola, has been hailed as a true success for operator Total and other shareholders. After reaching first oil in June 2014, the project is now being handed over to the local production team to operate for the next 20 years. Project Director, Francois Bichon and other senior managers tell Total World Energy more about this important development and what it has done for the local economy… Located 150 to 270 kilometers off the coast of Angola lays a 4000 km2 area known as the jewel in the Angolan energy industry; a region where oil production developments have set global benchmarks for the industry; a region where, less than a decade

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after first oil from the block, its cumulative production had reached over one billion barrels. It is of course Block 17; the ‘Golden Block’. Block 17’s story began back in ’96 after the discovery of the Girassol field. By 2001, this

field was setting records and producing 200,000 barrels per day. By 2007, much progress had been made in the region and the FPSO operating the Girassol field received tie-backs from the Jasmim and Rosa fields, and eventually the Dalia field was

CLOV

started, bringing the block’s total output to around 500,000 barrels per day. In 2011, the Pazflor project came online and this added a further 220,000 barrels per day to cumulative production. In June 2014, the CLOV (Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea, Violeta) fields development produced its first oil and, much to the delight of Sonangol, Total, Statoil, Esso and BP, reached its plateau soon after – a plateau that it has so far managed to stick to. However, even though the CLOV development has lived up to the success of the previous projects on the block, there has been many ups and downs to ride-out as Francois Bichon, CLOV Project Director, explains:

“We have had some hiccups but most things have been ok. The very good part has been oil production. When we start with all the wells, we cannot open them all at once. Opening wells has to be progressive and it depends on starting new, very complex installations. There has been progression, and that has been better than what was anticipated. It’s not that we’re producing more; we ramped up production quicker than what was planned – we don’t reach more than the maximum but we reached the maximum quicker and that was the very good aspect. “Water injection has been fairly good and as planned. Because

the reservoir starts emptying we inject water to maintain pressure and fill the void left when the oil is extracted; this has gone well. What has gone less well is gas export. We need some gas for electricity generation but the rest of what we produce is exported to Angolan LNG which is a new LNG plant built by a group headed by Chevron onshore. Unfortunately this plant has had some problems. We have nowhere to send the gas but other developments on Block 17 or on the block 2 have injection so the plan was to send the gas to them and they would inject it. But then came another problem – our compressors have electric motors and we have found a

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defect on these motors and our compressors are not working meaning we cannot export the gas,” says Bichon. FPSO Manager, Patrick Vallot says that the issue is mechanical and does not affect oil production and he fully expects the issue to be resolved quickly. “We had a failure in August and when we opened the motor, we found that there was mechanical damage to the rotor. After investigation, we found that there were some critical rotation speed frequencies where vibration or resonance damaged the contact piece of the rotor and this caused mechanical rupture internally. This came after around 400 hours of running so it was not immediate. It came after the accumulation of hours of operation at the critical speed. “All of the motors need to be repaired and they drive our compressors which allow us to export gas. The problem is not as critical with the water injection pump because it takes place at a frequency which the pump does not normally reach so we can operate them as they are but ultimately they have lost integrity and will need to be replaced. On December 4th 2014, refurbished motors were installed into one of the gas export trains, allowing gas export to operate properly. It is expected that the second export train will receive refurbished motors very soon and export will reach its planned level.

CLOV FPSO The CLOV FPSO, although featuring a number of innovations and improvements, has been designed to be similar to the other FPSO’s operating in Block

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17. This, according to Vallot, was deliberate as the organisation looks to replicate a proven model for success “If you look at it, it very much looks like its predecessors. CLOV FPSO has been contracted by the same shipyard, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), as Pazflor and Pazflor has been a constant reference during this contract.

“The experience we’ve had with Paenal yard has been extremely positive,” he says. “We started with Paenal when the yard upgrade was beginning. They were still developing facilities and that has been ongoing beside the CLOV project. It has been very successful as the whole scope of activity, which has been much higher than previous projects, has been completed on time, with

We have tried to make maximum use of what was learnt on Pazflor. For instance, the living quarters on CLOV are a carbon copy of Pazflor. In terms of design, CLOV is very similar but we have introduced a few improvements to the fine details.” Construction of the FPSO was undertaken by DSME at its yard in Okpo, Korea. However, construction work was also undertaken at the Paenal Yard in Porto Amboim, Angola. “Our contract started in July 2010 and we started with engineering,” explains Vallot. “The first steel cut was for the hull in July 2011 and the FPSO left Korea in August 2013. The final construction and integration phase was at Paenal in Angola and when this was finished, the FPSO sailed away from Paenal in January 2014. Then we moved into the offshore phase. The FPSO was moored and we completed the hook up and commissioning until first oil in June. Overall it was 47 months from effective date until first oil there were no significant delays.” Overall, the CLOV project has garnered much local involvement and interest and Vallot says that work at the Paenal yard has demonstrated the high level of quality that is now offered by the country’s offshore sector.

very good HSE records and to great quality. We can only give very positive feedback to Paenal yard.” The CLOV FPSO will work on Block 17 for the next 20 years and the hope is that it can be used for further production in the region when it is finished on CLOV. However, if, in 20 years’ time, the FPSO is no longer required, it is likely that it will be redeployed. “I’m not sure about the future of the FPSO. It very much depends on our team and if they can find some opportunities to extend the life of the FPSO with more production but that is for the exploration team,” says Vallot. “Typically, if there is not, the FPSO would be decommissioned and re-used or dismantled. That is the beauty of an FPSO; it’s very easy to decommission compared to a fixed facility.”

FLAMELESS FLARING One of the innovations that has been installed on the CLOV FPSO is a flameless flare. As part of the group-wide drive by Total to reduce gas wastage, the flameless flare is designed with a combination of valving and rupture disks or very thin plates calibrated to pressure. When the pressure becomes too high, the

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Project Director: François Bichon Photo: Hervé Piraud

valve opens or the rupture disks break and releases the gas to the flare which uses pellets to ignite automatically. “It’s a concept that comes from an attempt to reduce the global emissions for Total, it’s part of an overall emission reduction plan which has been going on over the past years and this concept is part of this continuous attempt to reduce gas emissions and also water emissions and all emissions to reduce the environmental impact of our development,” Vallot explains. “By recovering more gas and flaring less gives you economic benefits because its valuable gas being saved. Also, there is a safety issue as you want your flare to be absolutely reliable. “For Total, this system is not new. Usan in Nigeria was the first to apply this concept. As far as we are concerned, we are not in the situation to have a flameless system but as soon as we solve the compressor issue, the intention is to move towards this,” he adds.

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MULTIPHASE PUMPING Another innovation for CLOV is the use of a subsea multiphase pump system. The pump system will optimise recovery of hydrocarbons from parts of the Orquidea and Violeta oil fields, two of CLOV’s four reservoirs where pressure conditions are less favourable and the oil more viscous. The rock in the two fields is from the Miocene epoch and creates different conditions for production. CLOV SURF and SPS Manager, Frédéric Coudeville, says that the pumps are not yet operational but are being installed and normally this is not a lengthy process. “We have used some similar pumps on Pazflor but this is the first time we have used this specific type of booster pump for subsea operations. “The pumps have not been installed yet. The manifold is installed in the water and installation of the pumps is scheduled at some point in 2015 so the manifold is just a bypass

for production. We need to install the pumps and we need to commission the full system with the umbilical and the topside power system. The plan is to use these pumps two years after first oil,” he explains. There will be two pumps, one of which will be used as a back-up, and there are plans for similar systems to be used in the future as an essential solution for improving recovery rates in mature oilfields. “For the moment, the second pump is planned purely as a backup so that we are never penalised production-wise. It will be onshore and if we need to switch the pumps, it can be done quickly. “Overall you’re looking at a 10 day operation. You need to organise everything; you need an installation vessel, you have to connect the pump and you have to depressurise the system so it will probably take 10 days,” he says. On the Pazflor project, similar pumps have been used for subsea separation of liquids and gas but on CLOV the internal workings of the pump are different in order to deal with the more viscous oil. The system sets itself apart through its capacity to pump and tolerate a blend of fluids made up of oil, gas and water (multiphase fluid) from the oilfields, without their having been separated beforehand. Also, it is hoped that the use of the pumps will mean that optimum production can be maintained after approximately three years of operation. “This installation will compensate for the gradual fall in pressure in the oil fields by helping to propel the more

CLOV viscous oil up from the seabed to the production and storage unit on the sea’s surface. “The multiphase helico-axial structure is a high-performance design which prevents any loss of load and enables the rotor to evacuate a mix of several (even highly variable) fluids at high speed,” explains Bichon. EXPORT BUOY Following first oil back in June, the CLOV FPSO quickly set about working to its full capability and oil is being offloaded straight from the vessel. The long-term plan is to offload oil via an export buoy that sits two kilometres away. “The issue with the buoy is that installation is happening after first oil which means access to the site is reduced and the challenge is to optimise the installation between two tankers. You have to ensure that the sequence of operations does not affect the tankers or the FPSO,” explains Coudeville. “When you pull the Oil Offloading Lines (OOLs) between the buoy and FPSO, you have to be prepared to be working in between these two important pieces of equipment. There will be tugs, there will be vessels, and there will be diving activity around the buoy and the FPSO so everything requires perfect coordination. “Today the buoy is moored against the fabrication yard quay. Fabrication has been completed and we are going through different tests. We are working with the other companies who will be involved in the installation of the buoy to make sure everything is ok. “We have a buoy on Girassol, Dalia and Pazflor so we know this system. It’s designed with

a turning table so if the tanker moves, the buoy can cope with the situation. It needs more equipment to install but safetywise, it provide huge benefits,” he adds. The connection between the FPSO and the buoy will be made with OOLs, which Total is using for the first time on this project. They are 24 inches in diameter and made from reinforced rubber. They are designed to withstand pressure levels of 30 bars and last for 20 years, and because of their larger diameter, crude oil can be offloaded towards the buoy without the need for booster pumps that would normally be installed on the FPSO. The oil that is produced and offloaded is allocated among the concessionaire and the project shareholders and then sent off to markets all around the globe as Bichon explains: “We have tankers that arrive, connect to the FPSO, take typically one million barrels and then they go all over the world, depending on what the traders have concluded. This development involves a number of partners with shares. As each have paid their share of the investment, each gets their share of the oil but, of course, when you have a tanker, you don’t say 40% of the oil is for Total; we arrange to have one tanker for Total then the next is for the concessionaire, then the next for Statoil, the next is for Esso etc etc and then we maintain the account so that we know the number of tankers that each shareholder has had. Total as the operator will decide the order of tankers and then each company will make their deals with the refineries – which may not even be their own refineries

– it’s the traders business to sell the oil to whoever wants it.”

HANDING OVER Total has been present in Angola since 1953. At the end of 2013, Total operated around 600,000 boe/d, making it the country’s leading oil operator. The company has vast experience in the region and is known worldwide for its deepwater expertise and, importantly for the Angolan offshore industry, Total is willing to impart its knowledge to local companies in order to continue the on-going successful development of the region. The project team that has seen CLOV go from contract through to first oil is slowly leaving the project as responsibility for production over the next 20 years will be left with an affiliate organisation. “We need to work out resolutions to all the small problems that are left. We have handed production and water injection over to the operations team and we have responsibility to resolve a few problems, including the compressor issue, before we finish,” says Bichon. CLOV Field Operations Manager, Ludovic Linne has been part of the team organising the hand over process and says that it started a long time before first oil: “The handover process is something which started very early. We started about one year before the arrival of the FPSO in Angola, in October 2012, about 18 months before first oil. We set up what we call an integration steering committee (ISC) to ensure the readiness of the affiliate to integrate CLOV facilities in the organisation. ISC meetings took place every few

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months and the closer we got to first oil, the more frequent they became. Senior management attend the ISC meetings and all the entities are involved because, to integrate a site like CLOV, you need human resources, HSE, drilling, logistics, finance, etc so all the entities are involved and we involved the senior management to ensure that all actions are properly cascaded to the different entities,” he explains. “I was in charge of the field operations team and control of the operations until the first offloading and after that, it was decided to transfer the operational responsibility of

CLOV personnel within the Block 17 organisation,” says Linne. “For instance, I had set up in my team an onshore support organisation to support production activities so there was around 25 engineers and most of these people have been transferred to the Block 17 field operation organisation. This is very important to help maintain experience and knowledge within the Block 17 organisation.” Before handing over to the Block 17 organisation, Linne and rest of the field operations team created a list of tasks that still need to be addressed before the FPSO is 100% complete. This is a common process during the hand over procedure on large

the remaining construction activities (if there are any), such as painting, repairs or activities where you are still waiting for materials, and pass it to the affiliate. You would not do this if there are still major activities left to be completed – you only do this when you’re nearly at the end of the project and the final activities are just waiting on simple things. “For commissioning activities, we have handed over around 100 activities to the affiliate but you have to put that into perspective because there were tens of thousands of activities across the project so what is remaining is minimum scope compared to

the FPSO to the Block 17 field organisation,” he adds. The handover process has seen Total personnel join the Block 17 operational team, ensuring that expertise remains part of the project. “We have tried to integrate

projects and the tasks are usually menial. “The affiliate is always concerned that the project is demobilising too quickly so you have to prepare properly by organising workshops and an exhaustive list to transfer

what the contractor has already done,” he explains. Vallot, who is soon to head for a new position in the North Sea, says that, so far, the handover has gone very well and the project team are finishing up with their final activities: “It’s a

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Shah Deniz platform - Photo Shahin Abasaliyev - Statoil

CLOV complex operation that takes into account construction, commissioning and other aspects so it has been done in stages from August and it’s still going on. We still have some issues that are being taken care of by the project team.” The method of handing over this large scale operation from project team to Block 17 operational team is a method that has been a proven success in past operations. The whole process was done in exactly the same way on for Pazflor and Linne says that when a process works so well, there is no need to change it. “The ISC was set up in the same way on Pazflor, the handover of activities were done in the same way, and we really worked hand-in-hand with the Pazflor project and there was no reason not to reuse the method that was successful on Pazflor. We did not try and reinvent the wheel, we followed the methodology and we have been successful,” he says.

PLANS FOR 2015 It is clear that there is an air of positivity surrounding the CLOV project. Since first oil, apart from the issue with gas export, everything has gone

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extremely well and showed that the experience from previous projects has been invaluable. It looks as though this positivity will continue as we move through the new year; the project has already exceeded expectations in terms of reaching its plateau and the challenge now is to maintain this level by drilling more wells. The ultimate plan is to have 34 wells; 19 oil producers and 15 water injectors. Right now, there is 11 producers and four water injectors and Bichon explains that drilling will go on until all 34 are complete. “We have two drilling rigs and we have had them since the beginning of 2013 and they have both drilled and will drill continuously. One will stop before the other but the last one will stop in September 2016. They are drilling one each, one well takes about two months, so we are going at a rhythm of one new well every month. “When they are drilled and the Christmas trees are installed, then we have to connect them and that takes another two months. Today we have 11 producers, four injectors and two more wells are drilled but not yet connected. During the next year, given more information from the

wells and more information about the reservoir, the geologists might want to drill one more producer or one more injector so it might be adjusted but right now the plan is 19 and 15. “We are able to start full production with just nine wells. We don’t even need the injectors at the beginning. As time passes, the reservoir starts emptying and these nine producers start decreasing so we have to add more at other reservoir locations to maintain the full flow at 160,000 bpd so we don’t need all the wells at the beginning, it wouldn’t help,” he says. On 30th September 2014, oil production reached 168,000 bpd, the design peak for the CLOV FPSO, and has managed to maintain that level ever since. “This is certainly one of the greatest achievements of this project,” explains Linne. “We have been at around 95% availability since the beginning and this is ongoing. This is excellent for a start-up, especially in a field that has been operating for a number of years. What is interesting is that there was basically no learning curve. Normally, you can expect to start with around 70% or 80% and it increases little by little as you

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go through trouble shooting. We started, right from the beginning, with a very good availability and we have maintained it. The reason for this is the simplicity of the process. “Another success has been the readiness of the operator. If there is a problem that needs attention, the operators have been quick to respond avoiding a full cascade and shut down. “Another factor is the quality of the commissioning. If this is not done properly, you will pay the price and spend more time trouble-shooting. “The last success is the drilling where sufficient wells were drilled before first oil – not all connected but they were drilled. This means we have avoided sim-ops (simultaneous operations) like having to disconnected or connect and halt production while doing so,” he adds.

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CLOV – AN ANGOLAN PROJECT Ever since its first steps in Angola, Total has committed itself to helping the country develop. After the Angolan civil war eventually came to end in 2002, Total was firmly rooted in the region and was perfectly positioned to help develop the economy. Bichon says that he has seen major changes in the country in the 15 years that he has been working on Angolan projects: “There is a lot to do, lots of things to build. I worked in Angola 15 years ago and it was a very different place, still in war. Luanda was much less developed so we have seen major changes. There is a lot of aspiration for work from local people and a lot of aspiration for local involvement from government and international companies. 15 years ago, the interest was in revenues. There was not a lot of economic

activity, the money from the oil was needed for reconstruction after the war. Today, the level of education has risen and the government want the jobs to go to local people across all levels, especially in management roles.” Of all of the projects on Block 17, CLOV has seen the most local involvement with more than 10 million man-hours of work (Dalia had 2.5 million and Pazflor 3.7 million) and it is expected that the next Total project, Kaombo, will have more than 14 million man-hours of local work. Like Bichon, Coudeville and Linne have also found working closely with local people and contractors a successful process. “We have worked in different locations around the country and so far the quality has been good. There have been minor delays but overall we have delivered on time and I believe that this package has been a success,” says

CLOV Coudeville. “We have a request from the local authorities to nationalise the organisation as much as possible so our target was to start with at least the same nationalisation ratio as the other FPSO on Block 17. This is what we achieved. For instance, on the production team, all of the operators and chief operators are 100% Angolan positions and 50% of the supervisory positions are Angolan. The start-up team is more international but this is only during the early stages of production,” says Linne. Overall, since achieving first oil, the CLOV project has been a success on so many levels. The experiences gained from Girassol and Pazflor have provided the perfect platform to build on and, for the Project Director,

the main challenges have been organisational. “Each project has different characteristics,” says Bichon. “The first deepwater project on Block 17, Girassol, although I only worked on it for a small amount of time, really was a groundbreaking project. Everything was a problem and all the solutions had to be invented from scratch. You have to use all your engineering skills to look for new solutions to technical problems in a new environment. CLOV is the fourth deepwater project on Block 17 so we know, more or less, what we have to build. The challenges involve planning, subcontractors, vendors and combining everyone’s work to meet at the correct time – it’s an organisational challenge.

We always try to be inventive and improve the processes but there are always issues of vendors being late or contractors having quality problems so there is always problems that need alternative solutions and with CLOV the challenge has been managing a complicated organisation rather than technical.” Having utilised a large amount of local labour and developed many improvements for already efficient processes, CLOV will act as an example to follow; not just for Angola’s offshore industry but for deepwater projects all around the world. The fact that the production plateau was reached so quickly and has been maintained prove that CLOV is indeed a golden project in the Golden Block

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