Xikomba is the company’s first production on Block 15, and represents the first of several anticipated operated production facilities offshore Angola.
Located in the NW corner of the block, about 370km NW of Luanda, in water depths of up to 1,480m, Xikomba employs an ‘early production system’ (EPS) consisting of nine subsea wells tied-back to a floating-production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Xikomba is the third deployment of ExxonMobil’s EPS technology offshore West Africa, and the first EPS offshore Angola.
The Xikomba project includes contracts to Angolan companies to provide in-country fabrication, logistics support, training, and development and employment of Angolan nationals. These contracts support sustained growth in Angolan capacity and expertise to support future oil and gas developments. The field was discovered in 1999, and has estimated recoverable resources of approximately 100MMbrl of oil, with a target production of 80Mbrl/d.
In addition to Xikomba, ExxonMobil has previously announced two world-class deepwater developments on Block 15 that incorporate the compan’s ‘design one-build two’ approach, which provides significant time and cost savings. Kizomba A and Kizomba B, both $3.4-billion developments, together have estimated recoverable resources of approximately 2Bbrl of oil, and a combined target production of 500Mbrl/d. First oil from Kizomba A is scheduled for 2004, while Kizomba B first oil is expected in early 2006.