Oil production has started from the deep-water Rosa field in Block 17 off the coast of Angola. Hydro owns a 10 percent stake. Rosa was discovered at a depth of 1,350 meters in 1998. When it is fully developed it will comprise of 25 wells including 11 for water injection and 14 for production tied into four manifolds. The Rosa field is tied back to the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel ”Girassol” which is 15 kilometers away. ”Girassol” started production from the field with the same name in 2001.
Rosa’s proven reserves are 370 million barrels and will contribute to maintaining Girassol FPSO’s daily production of 250,000 barrels of oil for many years to come.
In order to receive the production from Rosa, extensive modifications have had to be made on “Girassol”. The modifications involved around 400 workers and all together 5,600 tons of structure and equipment. Excluding planned shut-downs, the production vessel has been in full operation during the whole modification period.
Now that Rosa is producing, all the water produced from the Girassol, Jasmin and Rosa fields will be re-injected back into the reservoirs. In addition, CO2 emissions will be reduced by using an innovative process which neutralizes and cleans the gaseous waste water from the tanker on the production vessel.
The Rosa development is a world first in as much as major construction work has been carried out under challenging safety conditions without closing down production. The Angolan national oil company Sonangol is concessionaire for Block 17.
