T. Rousselin - MinesParisTech - GEO212 - France

DOBA_Focus
Oil Development Project

To understand the actual situation and do some prospective work for the near future, it is necessary to understand the complexity of Chad oil projects. In this page we will focus on the Esso Chad Project.

 

The consortium led by Exxon (with partners Petronas and Chevron-Mobil) created an impressive industrial development in south-western Chad. 7 oil fields were drilled. The first one started to produce oil in 2003. The consortium faced a lot of challenges and production never reached the expected levels announced in the 90's. But oil prices were far higher than expected in the initial business plan from 2004 to 2008 and again since 2009 than expected. Hence, the consortium (and the Chadian government) made more money (even if production costs proved to be higher).

To export the oil, the partners set up two companies in Cameroon (COTCO) and in Chad (TOTCO), operated by Exxon, which had to create a gigantic work (pipeline, heating plants, power plants...) while taking care of environmental risks. The export pipeline is 1070 km long.

The consortium has progressively exploited 7 fields (Miandoum, Kome, Bolobo, Nya, Moundouli, Maikeri and Timbre) but the three main fields account for 90% of the total.

 

Click to open the animation presenting the evolution of the Doba project development between 2000 and 2008
 
 


 
 
 

Excerpts from Exxon presentations at the CIOME 2008 conference - October 8th and 10th, 2008

 

Since 2006, the Consortium has relinquished all exploration rights he had in Chad. Hence, the possibility of future involvement in Chad outside of Doba could only exist through farm in agreements with other operators.

Production figures based on the quaterly reports provided by Exxon show that through the first half of 2012 (after 9 years of exploitation), the project has sent to the world market 436,4 millions of barrels of crude oil (482 tankers have been loaded at the Kribi terminal since 2003).

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Quaterly reports of production and export tankers shipments (based on Exxon reports)

 

 

The consortium had to invest 3,5 billions US dollars since January 2007 to maintain production levels. As a result, the average daily production stays around 105 000 barrels per day as of mid-2012. This was obtained by a combination of a high pressure water injection program, well stimulations and additional wells.

Results from production support investments in thousand of barrels (source ©Exxon)

 

 

Even if Doba oil is not top quality and if oil prices have been volatile over the past few years, Doba oil price per barrel has averaged US$ 81,79 since 2008, more than twice the price when production started in 2003.

720_monthly_sales_prices_Doba

Monthly sales prices of the Doba Blend from 2008 to 2012

Hence even with the unexpected investments needed to maintain production levels and with production lower than 2000 expectations, the project has brought incredibly more money than expected at the beginning. On July 1st 2012, and since the beginning of the project, the Chadian government has received 9 343 millions of US dollars in oil revenues (2 747 millions in royalties ; 6 058 millions in Corporate Income Taxes ; 69 millions in Pipeline related income and 470 millions in Fees Permits and Duties.

For Cameroon, the situation is less interesting, as it receives project revenues only through transportation infrastructure. Hence, as production is lower than expected in 2000 and as (so far) no other oil project uses the pipeline, the Cameroonese government has received 343 millions of US dollars in oil revenues (including 176 millions in transit fee).

 

 

FURTHER READINGS

In order to get a complete view of the diverse informations available, we provide here a short selection :

  1. The view of the Chad Cameroon consortium :
  2. Another angle leads us to look at the way the various oil companies talk about it :

 

Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 March 2013 )