Total is nearing 700,000 b/d of production from its prolific Block 17 offshore Angola with the start-up of its latest deepwater development, the CLOV field cluster.

After a huge investment in another deepwater FPSO Total said it has added another160,000 b/d of production capacity to push the block’s production total towards the 700,000 b/d mark. CLOV is the latest deepwater project by Total in the block, producing oil from the Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta fields which together are estimated to contain 500 MMbbl of proven and probable reserves.

As these latest wells started producing, Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s E&P president, said CLOV will provide significant free cash flow. “Block 17 will therefore become Total’s most prolific production site and bring us a step closer to achieving our production potential of 3 MMb/d by 2017,” he declared.

Development of CLOV follows the Girassol development, the first in the block, which was then followed by Dalia and Pazflor.

This latest project features 34 wells, and eight subsea manifolds connected to 180 km (112 miles) of subsea flowlines in water depths from 1,100-1,400 (3,608-4,592 ft) linked to another large FPSO with 1.8 MMbbl of oil storage capacity.

The innovative use of multiphase subsea pumps on the CLOV production system will see it cope with two different types of oil in the cluster, allowing Total to boast that the project is another technology showcase. It made a big noise about Girassol when it came onstream in 2001 with the first-ever use of buoyancy support riser towers on a deepwater development.

Total operates block 17 with 40% and its partners are Statoil, Esso Exploration Angola, and BP while Sonangol is the block concessionaire.

Offshore