Oil

Launched in December 2007, Pazflor is currently the largest project operated by Total. It is a major development for Angola, which will increase the country's production by approximately 220,000 barrels per day. Pazflor has come on stream in August 2011, several weeks ahead of schedule. Pazflor has estimated proven and probable reserves of 590 million of barrels.

Daunting technological challenges have been met, including the installation of gas/liquid separation systems on the seabed, a technological world first.

Four separate reservoirs for this giant of the deep

The Pazflor adventure started in 2000 when Total's exploration teams scored another success in Angola's Block 17, a deep offshore license in the Gulf of Guinea, with the discovery of the Perpetua reservoir. Acacia and Zinia were uncovered in 2002, followed by Hortensia in 2003. Pazflor encompasses all four reservoirs and covers an area of over 600 square kilometers - six times larger than Paris - at a water depth of about 1,200 meters.

A technical challenge to combine the production of two different grades of oil

A key technical challenge was producing two very different grades of oil from four separate reservoirs.

Formed approximately 25 million years ago during the Oligocene epoch, Acacia contains light, good quality oil, similar to that of Girassol. The Perpetua, Zinia and Hortensia reservoirs are more recent, formed some 5 to 7 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, and their oil is heavier and more viscous, making it more difficult to produce. We decided to combine the production of these two very different oils, in keeping with our ongoing aim of optimizing the production of deep offshore resources. The choice was an ambitious one for a project of this size, encompassing two different subsea production systems tied into a single floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.

Subsea gas/liquid separation : a technological world first

In January 2011, three subsea separation units (SSU), each weighing a massive 1,200 metric tons, have been installed at a depth of 800 meters of water in Block 17 offshore Angola. The flagship innovation of the project, these units constitute a world first in terms of technology.

Oil extracted from reservoirs is never "pure," but mixed with gas and water in varying proportions. It also changes over the field's production life. The Block 17 fields brought on stream before Pazflor (Girassol, Dalia, Rosa) were developed using subsea production wells. The effluent is carried up to the FPSO on the surface, where it is processed to separate the oil, gas and water.

On Pazflor, however, an audacious solution is deployed: for the three Miocene reservoirs containing heavy, viscous oil, the gas is separated from the oil and water on the seabed, at a depth where human intervention is impossible. Once separated, the oil and water is forced back to the surface using powerful pumps specially designed for Pazflor, also installed on the seabed. The lighter gas rises naturally to the FPSO. These subsea modules are critical to production and are designed to operate for a 20-year period. They are the result of intensive R&D programs, including numerous qualification processes to ensure equipment reliability.

Unprecedented in scale, Pazflor's subsea separation system is a technological world first.

Technological proficiency forged by experience

We are leveraging our extensive deepwater experience and robust, tired and tested technological solutions to produce Acacia's lighter oil. The subsea production wells are connected to production lines, forming a loop - a configuration that is now standard in the deep offshore - and the subsea network is tied into the FPSO by two immense flexible lines, known as integrated production bundle risers (IPB risers), a design previously used on Dalia.

FPSO Pazflor, a floating leviathan

Both subsea separation units are connected to a single Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. After departing South Korea in January 2011, the Pazflor FPSO has joined its position in Angola in April 2011. Its trip lasted 84 days for a crossing of 11’000 nautic miles, ie 18 500 kilometers.

The Pazflor FPSO is the first of its kind to process two very different grades of oil. Nearly 120,000 metric tons of steel were used in the construction of this leviathan, one of the largest FPSOs ever built. The onboard equipment includes gas turbines rated at a record 120 MW - enough to supply a city with some 100,000 inhabitants. The FPSO, our third on Block 17, is able to process 220,000 barrels of oil per day and store 1.9 million barrels.

An immense industrial jigsaw puzzle spanning the globe

Designing and building the equipment required to develop Pazflor marshaled the know-how of hundreds of people at dozens of industrial sites worldwide. Our aim is to successfully unify all these teams and harness their competencies to achieve the goal of first oil in the second half of 2011. From Geoje Island in South Korea to Houston in the United States, via France, Norway, Scotland, Mexico and of course, Angola, thousands of men and women are pouring their efforts and expertise into this huge project. By way of example, 7 million man-hours have been needed for the FPSO alone.

True to our commitment to working in partnership with Angola, Pazflor is a major driver in the development of the country's oil industry. By also helping to train Angolan technicians and management personnel in forefront deep offshore technologies, the project is a natural continuation of the mutually beneficial relationship between Total and Sonangol, Angola's national oil company.

People safety and environmental protection

Safety is the undisputed priority in tackling the potential risks inherent to a development of this scale. This is achieved through continuously heightening risk awareness through team coaching, so that everyone at every level understands and embraces their responsibility.

This core concern is coupled with a commitment to respecting the environment. A census of the deep offshore marine life on Pazflor and an environmental impact assessment (EIA) were prerequisites for project kick-off. To limit the project's environmental footprint, the associated gas produced with the oil will not be flared, but rather reinjected into the reservoirs or exported to a planned Angolan liquefaction plant; production water will be reinjected into the Miocene reservoirs; and highly efficient gas turbines will be used.