Museveni to launch oil drilling on Tuesday
This photo shared on January 23, 2023 by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda shows the rig for Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District, mid-western Uganda. PHOTO/HANDOUT
What you need to know:
- The Kingfisher Area oil project will also develop a central processing facility with peak capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day, and 19 kilometre of flow-lines that will connect the oil fields to the facility.
President Museveni will officially launch oil drilling activities on January 24 at the Kingfisher Development Area in Kikuube District, Energy and Minerals Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa has said.
The launch, according to Nankabirwa will involve commissioning of the Kingfisher drilling rig for all 31 oil wells, including the deepest well which is over seven kilometres- in depth.
The drilling rig, LR8001, arrived in Mombasa on September 12, 2022, and a total of 280 trucks delivered it in bits at the Pad-2 site in the mid-western Uganda district of Kikuube.
Its erection and installation works were concluded in November 2022 following third-party inspections.
‘1st in Africa’
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Uganda Ltd that will undertake the drilling described the oil rig as: “The first 8km fully automated silent rig in Africa, equipped with industry-leading technologies such as well site de-noising control, zero discharge system, and pipe column automation system.”
CNOOC, in a statement also noted that the whole set of equipment is a landmark achievement of Chinese oil equipment to transition to environmental friendliness and low carbon.
The development plan for the Kingfisher field includes the onshore drilling of 31 wells from four well pads.
In the oil industry speak, a well pad is a graded area for an oil drilling site where drilling rigs and pumps are planted before the actual drilling starts for an oil well or several oil wells within the same site.
The Kingfisher Area oil project will also develop a central processing facility with peak capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day, and 19 kilometre of flow-lines that will connect the oil fields to the facility.
Nankabirwa noted that the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) work and services at Kingfisher project are subdivided into four packages.
These include pre-drilling civil works, oil field infrastructure, oil field production facilities, and installing the KFDA Project Feeder Line, with completion rates between 19.49 percent and 46.53 percent.
The Tilenga Project
Nankabirwa, in an update of the Total Energies’ Tilenga project, said it's in advanced stages for drilling activities before the close of the first quarter.
The project will be undertaken through onshore drilling of 426 oil wells from 31 Well pads with three drilling rigs with production capacity of 190,000 barrels of oil per day at peak.
The project area covers parts of the Buliisa and Nwoya districts, North and South of the Victoria Nile.
Regarding the preparations, the Minister said, one of the three rigs required to drill the 426 wells for the Tilenga Project arrived in Mombasa on October 19, 2022, and is currently kept at JBR-5, awaiting assembly.
Construction of the two other rigs in China is at 100 percent completion, while assembly inspection, Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and endurance Test are at 100percent and 85 percent, respectively.
Currently, contractors are assembling, testing, and calibrating some of the equipment such as installation of generator facilities, fuel tank storage areas and building warehouses at the Drilling Support Base located within the Tilenga Industrial Area in Buliisa district.
“The highlights from the activities undertaken during 2022 show significant progress has been made in enabling Infrastructure works for the Access Roads to the different facilities,” Nankabirwa said at the annual media briefing for oil and gas in Kampala on January 20.
