TotalEnergies has submitted an application to convert its exploration right offshore South Africa into a production right.
The Block 11B/12B area covers the Luiperd and Brulpadda discoveries. The company is relinquishing the northern part of the area and is entering a gas market development period, to confirm the plan’s economic viability, partner Africa Energy reported.
The Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) has not responded to a request for comment on the plan. PASA should respond within two weeks to the French company’s application. The regulator required Total to submit its application this month.
Africa Energy president and CEO Garrett Soden congratulated Total on the step.
“This is an important milestone for the proposed Luiperd early production system [EPS], and we look forward to finalizing the gas offtake terms,” Soden said.
“The success at both the Luiperd-1X and Brulpadda-1AX wells significantly de-risks the remaining Paddavissie Fairway prospects for a potential larger development as the gas market expands in South Africa.”
The exploration right covered an area of 18,734 square km. The proposed relinquishment will reduce this to around 12,000 square km.
Total has a 45% stake in the block. Qatar Petroleum International Upstream, a subsidiary of QatarEnergy (QE), has 25%. CNR International has 20%. Africa Energy has a 49% stake in Main Street 1549, which has 10% in the block.
IHS Markit has forecast that Total could develop the Luiperd find via the existing F-A platform. This would involve two production wells and pipelines to the Ikhwezi facility, on F-A. IHS said this would cost $900 million.
The consultancy said “a viable development approach would be to first focus on the low-risk volumes as a proof of concept in terms of field deliverability and associated volumes before additional processing capacity is added downstream”.