In the plan now approved by the partners, drilling is slated to begin in 2012 and first oil is expected in 2014.
The CLOV development, located around 140km from Luanda and 40km northwest of Dalia in water depths ranging from 1,100 to 1,400m, will bring on stream four fields which are Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta.
The company said that a total of 34 subsea wells will be tied back to the CLOV Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, which will have a processing capacity of 160,000 barrels of oil per day at plateau and a storage capacity of 1.78 million barrels.
The CLOV FPSO will handle two types of oil which are light oil with an API gravity between 32 to 35° API from Oligocene reservoirs (Cravo-Lirio) and a 20 to 30° API gravity oil (more viscous) from Miocene reservoirs (Orquidea-Violeta) that will be commingled and processed in one single train before storage.
Total E&P Angola operates Block 17, with a 40% interest, alongside Statoil (23.33%), Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) (20%) and BP Exploration (Angola) (16.67%).
