Luanda, Angola, 24 Nov – The Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for oil and natural gas, has introduced an innovation to the world oil industry by being the first to separate oil and gas beneath the sea, Angolan news agency Angop reported.
Undersea separation of oil and gas is a process resulting from the existence of two different types of crude oil dealt with simultaneously, one is light and located in a deep sedimentary layer, and another is heavy and located in a sedimentary layer that is not so deep.
At the inauguration of Pazflor last Tuesday, Angola’s Oil Minister, Botelho de Vasconcelos, said that the technological innovation achieved means that the, “Total group and its partners should be congratulated and Angola recognised the project as a great feat in the development of the oil industry in the country.”
Angolan state oil company Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola (Sonangol), Total E&P Angola and its partners in block 17 last August launched production at the Pazflor project, which is a group of oil fields in Angola’s offshore area, some 150 kilometres form Luanda.
The depth of the fields varies between 600 and 1,200 metres and the project has proven and probable reserves of 590 million barrels of oil and production capacity is 220,000 barrels of oil per day, which will be achieved progressively.
Pazflor is made up of an immense network of undersea facilities, the most complex ever installed in Angola, with 180 kilometres of production line linking 49 large undersea wells.
The FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) is 325 metres long, 62 metres wide and weighs 120,000 tons, can store up to 1.9 million barrels inside it, and the associated gas that is produced is entirely re-injected into the Pazflor storage tanks.
Total E&P Angola is the operator of Block 17 with a stake of 40 percent, and its partners are Statoil with 23.33 percent, Esso Exploration Angola with 20 percent and BP Exploration (Angola) Ltd. with 16.67 percent. (macauhub)
Related News:
- Total Angola begin development of Pazflor oil project
- Sonangol and Total E&P announce further oil strike in Angola
- France’s Total invests US$9 billion in oil exploration in Angola
- FPSO PazFlor due to start production in Angola in November
- Angola: Production capacity in Block 17 to reach 700,000 bpd in 2011 with new fields
Portugal and China boost their position as Angola’s main trading partners 
Macau Pataca Converter
Follow Us!