Chissonga FPSO takes a leap in size

Maersk Oil chief executive Jakob Thomasen

Target: Maersk Oil chief executive Jakob Thomasen

ANTHONY GUEGEL

By ANTHONY GUEGEL and Iain Esau Houston and London

 24 May 2012 22:59 GMT

Danish independent Maersk Oil is set to issue bid documents in October covering all the elements of its super-sized Chissonga project in deepwater Block 16 off Angola, which will involve about 40 subsea wells tied back to a floating production, storage and ­offloading vessel.

Industry sources said invitations to tender will be released for an FPSO which will be designed to handle upwards of 150,000 bpd of oil, at least 50% bigger than the vessel Maersk was envisaging just one year ago.

This uptick in size has been driven by drilling success in Block 16 where sources said a well test is currently under way on the Caporolo-1 probe after the operator recently completed the Chissonga-3 appraisal well.

Nils Smedegaard Andersen, chief executive of parent company AP Moller-Maersk, added last week in the company’s quarterly results: “We…

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