The Kizomba B development in block 15 off Angola, where Statoil has a 13.33 per cent interest, recently came on stream roughly five months ahead of schedule.
This is the third field to begin production in the block, one of three Angolan licences in which Statoil has a similar stake. The others are blocks 17 and 31.
Kizomba A came on stream last August, while output from Xikomba started in November 2003.
Unit development costs for Kizomba A and B have been record low for projects of this size and complexity, with the second field costing USD 3.5 billion to bring into production.
Kizomba A was also completed in a record speed of 36 months, while the B project took 31 months to complete. They rank as the biggest developments of their kind off Africa.
The Kizomba B project is virtually identical with the A development, embracing a tension leg platform (TLP) tied back to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.
Able to store up to 2.2 million barrels, the Kizomba B FPSO lies roughly 322 kilometres off Angola and produces the Kissanje and Dikanza discoveries in 1,010 metres of water.
Operator ExxonMobil estimates that the latest development contains one billion barrels of recoverable oil, and aims to produce 250,000 barrels per day at plateau.
Statoil’s share of this output will be just over 33,000 daily barrels, and plans call for the three block-15 fields to reach a plateau production of more than 550,000 barrels late this year.
Apart from Statoil, and ExxonMobil with 40 per cent, the partners in block 15 are BP with 26.67 per cent and ENI with 20 per cent.