West Africa

This report is in three parts: an introduction to the West African well intervention industry, case- studies in the region to highlight and notable service companies that work in the region.

The aim of this report is to give you an introduction to the market or an update if you’re already in the know.

In West Africa’s deepwater oil and gas patch, Riserless Light Well Intervention (RLWI) conducted from drilling or other support vessels is proving to be an important resource – providing a much faster and cheaper alternative to using rigs. A rising well intervention backlog and tight budgets means this effective solution needs to be quickly and widely deployed if legacy production declines are to be addressed.

This publication is a Special Report focused on Deepwater Solutions For West Africa’s Oil and Gas Industry, featuring the region’s major industry event, West African Offshore Well Intervention Conference (OWI WA). The event is focused on Subsea Well Intervention in the West Africa offshore market. It also covers latest trends and innovation in the industry.

This paper is designed to outline well intervention and P&A opportunities available to contractors in the West Coast of Africa by analysing regional levels of activity, operator well stock and major projects (part 1).

This paper is designed to outline well intervention and P&A opportunities available to contractors in the West Coast of Africa by analysing regional levels of activity, operator well stock and major projects (part 2).

Production decline in mature fields is a common challenge to offshore operators throughout the globe. And in West Africa especially, where developing new fields often requires delving into unexplored deepwater and ultra- deepwater territories, many have decided to take advantage of innovative technical developments in enhanced oil recovery technologies to recover the maximum from their existing oil reserves.

Sonangol EP is one of those companies who, despite recent positive discoveries in its offshore pre-salt acreage which should comfortably allow Angola to maintain its status as Africa’s second largest oil producer, sees the need to ensure additional reserves are extracted from existing wells. Today, we speak with Geraldo Ramos, Senior Production Engineer at Sonangol EP who is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Aberdeen focusing on Advanced Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques with specific focus on Angolan onshore/offshore fields. We discuss his results so far, his vision for Angola’s 2018 production landscape and the experience he gained from the North Sea.

Sonangol’s Geraldo Ramos shares a unique case study outlining the results of a new approach to EOR in West Africa.