BP CONTINUES its stunning run of discoveries on Angola’s ultra-deepwater block 31 with Leda, the 17th find to date. The latest lies in the north-central part of the concession, some 415km north-west of Luanda and 12km south-west of the Marte field.
This is also the fifth discovery in block 31, where the exploration well has been drilled through salt to access the oil-bearing sandstone reservoir beneath.
Leda was drilled with the drillship, GSF Explorer, in a water depth of 2,070m and reached a total depth of 5,907m below sea level.
This will now join the queue of finds awaiting development, a process which has started with the first of four (so far) development phases on block 31.
First is the PSVM project, which is a hub concept that will produce from the Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte oilfields.
The PSVM plan is for 48 subsea wells (production and water and gas-injection); 15 manifolds; 170km (106 miles) of flowlines, and 95km (59 miles) of control umbilicals linking the production to an FPSO based on a tanker conversion.
The second cluster will comprise fields in the south-east sector, including Palas, Ceres, Juno, Astraea and Hebe.
The likely third cluster lies to the north-west section of the block. These fields include Urano, Titania, Terra, Portia, Miranda and Cordelia.
The 16th find, Dione, is located in the southern section of block 31, which covers some 5,349sq km (1.3million acres) and has water depths ranging 1,500-2,500m (4,921-8,202ft).
BP is operator of the block with a 26.7% interest. The other interest holders are ExxonMobil (25%), Sonangol (20%), Statoil (13.33%), Marathon (10%) and Total (5%).