TotalEnergies' deepwater Preowei discovery offshore Nigeria, initially discovered in 2003 and appraised in 2017, is now believed to hold more hydrocarbons than previously estimated. The field was originally planned as a subsea tieback to the Egina floating production storage and offloading vessel, with a potential production capacity of about 65,000 barrels per day.

Project Development and Optimization

A bid process for an initial 18-well subsea production system was suspended in 2020, primarily due to capital constraints. Since then, aided by a more attractive investment regime from the Nigerian government, TotalEnergies and its partners, including Meren Energy, have been conducting further studies to optimize the development. The goal of this ongoing project optimization work is to complete studies that will provide the necessary results to advance the project towards a final investment decision.

Increased Resource Estimate

During a recent third-quarter workshop, the operator presented findings from a re-assessment of seismic data over Preowei, which indicated an increase in recoverable resources and delivered encouraging results. This optimization exercise is set to continue through early 2026, with additional work planned to validate these resources and further optimize the project. According to the website of another partner, South Atlantic Petroleum, the discovery holds about 108 million barrels of oil, though Meren did not reveal a new specific recoverable resource number in its commentary.

Related Developments

In related activities, TotalEnergies is firming up a plan to drill a nearfield exploration well on the 144 million-barrel Akpo Far East prospect. If successful, this would be tied back to the Akpo FPSO. Meanwhile, at Chevron's Agbami field, where Meren is also a partner, contracting activities to secure a rig and long-lead items are progressing ahead of a planned 2027 infill drilling campaign. Chevron is also maturing plans to drill an appraisal well on the Ikija discovery as part of this infill drilling campaign.

This material is an AI-assisted summary based on publicly available sources and may contain inaccuracies. For the original and full details, please refer to the source link. Based on materials by Iain Esau. All rights to the original text and images remain with their respective rights holders.