HOUSTON—It’s been a very busy decade-plus for Total in West Africa. The Paris-based operator’s success in the region started with Girassol offshore Angola in 2001. Success attracts more success as additional Angola projects at Dalia and Pazflor witnessed first oil in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Success also came to Akpo offshore Nigeria in 2006.

The focus of an OTC luncheon on May 1 was the company’s impressive feat of human and industrial innovation off the coast of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo—Moho Nord. André Goffart, senior vice president of development and support for operations at Total, showcased for attendees the innovations responsible for the success at Moho Nord.

Launched in March 2013, Moho Nord is the second project on the Moho Bilondo license 75 km (46.6 miles) offshore Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo. Goffart said the company has come a long way from Girassol, with advances in technologies like subsea processing and subsea separation making offshore production possible. Moho Nord is no exception, he added.

LISTEN: Philippe Charlez, Senior Technical Advisor, Total SA, discusses Moho Nord and its impact.

With a production capacity of 100 Mboe/d, Moho Nord is the biggest oil development to date in the Republic of the Congo. Developed through 34 wells tied back to a new tension-leg platform (TLP)—a first for Total in Africa—and to the Likouf floating production unit (FPU). Oil is processed on the Likouf and then exported by pipeline to the Total-operated Djeno onshore terminal.

Moho Nord is, according to Goffart, two subprojects producing from three reservoirs. One subproject developed the Miocene and Albian reservoirs found in northern area of Moho Nord and includes the TLP and FPU facilities. The waters produced from the Miocene and Albian reservoirs are incompatible due to barium sulfate scales. Because of this, the FPU has two separate water processing trains, Goffart said.

Production from the southern area of Moho Nord was made possible via a subsea tieback to the Moho Bilondo FPU Alima that has been in operation since 2008. Modifications to the Alima to accommodate new production include the addition of 1,500 tons of new equipment and increasing of the vessel’s capacity to 150,000 bbl/d maximum, Goffart said.

According to Goffart, the facilities were designed to minimize their environmental footprint, with “the best available technology available” used. This includes an all-electric design to improve energy efficiency by optimizing the amount of power needed to run the installations. There will be no routine flaring and all produced water will be reinjected into the reservoir, he said.

For Goffart, key highlights for the project include that with Moho Nord, there are an additional 140,000 bbl/d of oil brought online in less than four years from final investment decision to first oil. Total announced in March 2017 that production had started up at Moho Nord.

Total is the operator of the project with a 53.5% interest, Chevron Overseas (Congo) Ltd. (31.5%) and Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (15%) are partners in the project.

Jennifer Presley can be reached at jpresley@hartenergy.com or @JPresleyWriter.

Offshore