Canadian Natural Announces Commencement of Production at Baobab

abarrelfull wrote on 18 Jul 2012 08:55
Tags:

Latest News

• Want a weekly review of refining news?

• This Week in Refining
• RSS Feed

AUGUST 18, 2005

Canadian Natural Resources Limited ("Canadian Natural" or the “Company”) announces that crude oil production from the operated Baobab Field, located in block CI-40 offshore Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, commenced on August 9, 2005. Current field production is approximately 48,000 barrels per day (approximately 30,000 barrels per day net to Canadian Natural) from 4 wells. The field production rate is expected to increase to approximately 65,000 barrels of crude oil per day (approximately 40,000 barrels per day net to Canadian Natural) in early 2006 as the remaining 4 producer wells are completed. Production of associated natural gas will increase to about 15 million cubic feet per day by year end.

“The completion of the Baobab development is a significant event for Canadian Natural as it represents our first deep-water exploration and development project. The fact that we completed the Baobab development in a 4.5 year cycle time frame from initial discovery to first production, in a tight market, shows that we have developed significant in-house expertise and that our management systems are effective in this new and challenging operating environment. We can leverage this expertise towards other projects throughout the Company.” commented Steve Laut, President and Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Natural.

Production from the deep-water wells is processed on the “Baobab Ivoirien” Floating Production Storage and Offtake (“FPSO”) vessel. The FPSO has a storage capacity of two million barrels of oil. The crude oil will be sold directly from the FPSO and the natural gas will be transported via pipeline to shore where it will be sold for power generation.

The Baobab Field was discovered in 2001. Appraisal of the field comprised a second deep-water well drilled in 2002 and extensive 3D seismic mapping. The development of the Baobab Field was approved in July 2003 and the project was completed within Canadian Natural's capital cost budget.

Canadian Natural has a 57.61% equity in the Baobab Field with partners PETROCI Overseas Limited (10%), PETROCI Holding (5%) and Svenska Petroleum Exploration CI AB (27.39%).

• Canadian Natural Announces Commencement of Production at Baobab

---