How to reach first oil before other companies

Eni is active in the exploration, development and extraction of oil and natural gas in 44 countries, including Italy, Algeria, Angola, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, United States, Mexico and Venezuela. Our exploration strategy is based on four winning factors – three operative and one financial:

• speed of time-to-market
• cost-effectiveness
• organic growth through the integration of development and exploration
• dual exploration model

The focus both now and going forward is exploration – “the centre of gravity of our growth potential” as Claudio Descalzi described it. It is precisely by following this unique and innovative model that we are able to reach first oil on average three years ahead of time compared to conventional exploration models. That’s how we achieved seven records: West and East Hub in Angola, Nooros and Zohr in Egypt, Nené Marine in the Republic of Congo, Jangkrik in Indonesia and OCTP in Ghana. Here are a few more details about dual exploration and the projects it was successfully applied to.

• Design to cost – the overlapping of exploration and development: thanks to cutting-edge analysis and drilling technologies developed at the Green Data Centre in Ferrera Erbognone, we are managing to integrate and correlate the exploration and development stages. We follow the ‘design to cost’ principle, which means engineering the entire business cycle, starting with exploration. Preparatory analyses for development are made during exploration. The information collected enables us to improve project engineering and reduce the amount of time required to reach the final investment decision (FID). For example, seismic imaging and high computing power allow for a deep understanding of the deposit, reducing the time spent in the exploration stage. In particular, the Ferrera Erbognone facility houses HPC4, the most powerful industrial-level supercomputer in the world, which allows us to study subsoil data with an extraordinary degree of accuracy. 
• Step by step – why development is subdivided into stages: the development process consists of setting up and preparing the mining sites. Thanks to the different stages, it is possible to use existing plants and anticipate cash flow. Here are a few examples. In 2017, in the Republic of Congo, progress was made in the implementation phase of the onstream Nené Marine Phase 2A project in the Marine XII block (Eni operator, with a 65 per cent stake): (i) the installation and launch of a new production platform; (ii) the creation of a new sealine to export production to the Kitina hub (Eni operator, with a 52 per cent stake); and (iii) the start-up of seven additional production wells. Planned development activities include the drilling of additional production wells, with start-up expected in 2018, and the construction of a sealine to provide a link to the Litchendjili hub in the Marine XII block. In February 2017, production start-up was achieved at the East Hub project in Block 15/06 (Eni operator, with a 36.84 per cent stake) in the African country, five months earlier than scheduled and with one of the fastest times to market in the industry. The West Hub project, which has been producing oil since late 2014, is also onstream. In November 2017, Eni signed an extension to exploration rights in the block until 2020, allowing the company to exploit the full near-field exploration potential of an extremely fruitful area.
• Near field exploration – exploration next to production fields: working in synergy with existing plants, exploration has taken place next to deposits that are fully operative or where there are plans for future production. This is what happened at Nooros in Egypt, the two developments of West and East Hub in Angola, and the Jangkrik project in the Muara Bakau block in Indonesia. Thanks to Eni’s ‘near-field exploration’ strategy, the FPU can be used as a hub not only for the Jangkrik Complex fields, but also for Merakes, the new discovery within the adjacent East Sepinggan Block .
• Saving money by using existing assets: converting unused assets saves on time and cost. The floating units of Nené Marine, West and East Hub and OCTP were not built from scratch but on existing platforms that were converted for the occasion. Similar successful projects include Nooros and Melehia in Egypt and the Jangkrik Complex in Indonesia.