Platina Oil Field Development

The Platina deepwater oil field located in block 18, offshore Angola is the third BP-operated upstream project in the African country.

It is the second development project in block 18 after the Greater Plutonio field that has been producing since 2007.

BP is the operator of block 18 with a 46% interest, while Sonangol Sinopec International (SSI) holds the remaining 54%.

Scheduled to come on stream by the end of 2021, the Platina oil field is being developed as a subsea tie-back to the existing Greater Plutonio floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.

The engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the Platina offshore field development was awarded in March 2020.

Platina oil field location and discovery

Platina is the first among the eight oil discoveries made in the deepwater block 18 that  encompasses approximately 5,000km² in the Angolan offshore, approximately 140km north-east of Luanda.

Located in 1,300m-deep waters, the Platina field was discovered in May 1999. It was followed by the discovery of seven more fields in the block that include Plutonio (July 1999), Galio (2000), Paladio (2000), Cromio (2000), Cobalto (2000), Cesio (2003) and Chumbo (2003).

The existing Greater Plutonio development comprises five of these fields including Galio, Cromio, Cobalto, Paladio, and Plutonio in the north-western part of the block.

Platina, Chumbo and Cesio fields are located approximately 30km away from Greater Plutonio.

Angola Block 18 Greater Plutonio development

BP and Sonangol entered into an agreement to initiate the Platina oil field development and to extend the Greater Plutonio production licence until 2032.

The existing subsea development for the Greater Plutonio project comprises more than 40 subsea wells connected to a permanently-moored FPSO through 18 production trees, nine subsea manifolds, 21 flexible risers, seven umbilicals and four steel risers.

Although the nameplate capacity of the project is 220,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), the current operational capacity is estimated to be 76,000bpd.

The Platina field development, followed by the development of Cesio and Chumbo fields, is intended to utilise the spare processing capacity of the Greater Plutonio FPSO.

Greater Plutonio FPSO details

Capable of storing 1.75 million barrels of oil, the Greater Plutonio FPSO vessel is spread-moored with 12 mooring lines in 1,300m-deep waters.

The oil processing and water injection capacities of the FPSO are 220,000bpd and 450,000bpd respectively, while the gas handling capacity is up to 400 million cubic feet per day (Mcfd).

The oil from the FPSO is offloaded to trading tankers via a remote offloading system, while the gas is re-injected into the reservoirs as well as exported to the Angola LNG project.

KBR was the engineering, procurement, construction and management (EPCM) contractor for the FPSO. The hull and topsides were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea.

Contractors involved with the Platina field development

TechnipFMC was awarded an integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the Platina field development in March 2020.

The scope of the contract includes the manufacturing, delivery and installation of a subsea production system including subsea trees, a production manifold and associated subsea control and connection systems, as well as rigid pipelines, umbilicals and flexible jumpers.

Technip was also engaged for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) of the subsea project.

In October 2018, Aker Solutions was contracted to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for the brownfield modifications, as well as maintenance and operations support services for the Greater Plutonio FPSO for a period of five years.

BP in Angola

BP is the operator of two Angolan deepwater blocks including block 18 and block 31. It also has non-operating interest in blocks 15, 17, 20. The company has a total acreage exceeding 32,600km² in Angola, which is the second biggest oil producing country in Africa.

Platina will be BP’s first operated development in Angola since the PSVM development project in block 31 that commenced production in 2013.

The PSVM development area comprises a cluster of four oil fields namely, Plutão, Saturno, Venus, and Marte that are located in 2,000m-deep waters in the north-east part of block 31.

BP’s total net production from its operated as well as non-operated assets in Angola was estimated to be 165,000bpd in 2018.