BP’s PSVM Oil Field in Angola to Reach Peak Production Next Year

BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK [31/01/13]

By Colin McClelland

BP Plc (BP/), which started operating its PSVM oil project in Angola at the end of last year, expects to reach peak output in 2014. 

Production will rise to 150,000 barrels a day after the project’s Marte field starts next year, Amilcar da Costa, a Luanda-based spokesman, said today in a telephone interview. PSVM, which comprises the Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte fields, is the deepest offshore development in Africa, according to the company. 

BP is working to stem a decline in production in Angola after output dropped 28 percent in 2011, according to its annual report for that year. Three wells in Plutao are pumping a total of 7,000 barrels a day and the field’s output will increase to 70,000 barrels daily by June 30, da Costa said. 

“We will have two more fields coming on stream this year,” he said. “It’s too early to determine exactly when the last field will start.” 

London-based BP has a 26.7 percent stake in the ultra-deep water concession, according to the company website. Exxon Mobil Corp. has 25 percent, state-owned Sonangol EP holds 20 percent and Statoil ASA (STL) has 13.3 percent. Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) owns 10 percent and China Sonangol International Ltd. holds 5 percent. 

BP expects to pump about 533 million barrels from about 40 wells at PSVM, which lies at a depth of 2,000 meters (6,562 feet). It has 1.8 million barrels of crude storage at the location off the coast of northern Angola. 

The company’s production of so-called liquids that include crude and condensate averaged 123,000 barrels a day in 2011, compared with 170,000 barrels a year earlier, according to the annual report. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Colin McClelland in Johannesburg at cmcclelland1@bloomberg.net 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net