courtesy Total

Total has turned on the taps for Sonangol and partners at the two-year-long Rosa development, where the production of oil has begun 135 kilometres offshore the rebuilding African contry.

Rosa has started pumping 250,000 barrels per day of oil from installations on a seafloor 1,350 metres beneath the surface. Oil is pumped to the Girassol floating production storage and offloading vessel 15 km distant.

The project sets a record for its combination of field size, water depth and tie-back distance. Total will steady production until early “next decade”, when the 25 wells are seen serving up slightly less of the 370 million barrels in reserves.

Total with its 40-percent operatorship is joined in Block 17 by Esso Exploration with 20 percent, BP with 16.67 percent, Statoil with 13.33 percent and Norsk Hydro with 10 percent.