Woodside Energy has revised the subsea installation campaign schedule at its Sangomar project, in Senegal, but continues to expect first oil in 2023.
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill described subsea equipment fabrication as “progressing, and the second drillship, the Ocean BlackHawk, is scheduled to commence activities in mid-2022”.
As of the end of the first quarter, the Sangomar phase 1 project was 56% complete, the company said.
It expects subsea installation to start in the third quarter of 2022, the Australian company said. Equipment is still being delivered to Senegal.
The project will use a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO). The vessel is a converted VLCC. The tanker arrived at a Chinese shipyard in February 2021. The company has named it Léopold Sédar Senghor, after Senegal’s first president.
Woodside said conversion work was going ahead despite COVID-19 restrictions. The second drydock work is complete, the company said.
© Supplied by WoodsideDrill plans
The Australian developer also reported Senegal had approved a two-year exploration extension for an area covering SNE North-Spica. There had been plans to explore this area with a well in 2021.
The company has previously talked about drilling the SNE North-2 well in the second half of this year. If Woodside finds oil at this well, it could it back to the FPSO.
Partners drilled the SNE North-1 well in 2017, finding 24 metres of gross hydrocarbon column across three intervals. The oil was slightly lighter than that found in the SNE field.
The Ocean BlackRhino arrived in July 2021 to begin a 23-well drilling programme on Sangomar.
In the third quarter of 2021, Woodside raised the possibility of selling down a stake in its Senegalese licences, targeting 40-50%. There was no mention of this in the company’s recent quarterly update.