Our Operations

The FPSO is 310 metres long and has oil storage capacity of 1.77 million barrels, oil processing of up to 240,000 barrels of oil per day, produced and treated water injection rate of 450,000 barrels per day and gas handling of up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day. It is held in position by 12 mooring lines connected to anchor piles on the seabed. 


The reliability of operations has increased markedly since first production in 2007 when process safety and reliability defects caused production targets to be missed. The dramatic improvement in Greater Plutonio’s reliability and performance was recognized in 2013 with the award of the top ‘Helios’ award across the whole of BP – awards that represent the best of BP’s values across the breadth of its work. 


Safety performance on Greater Plutonio has been encouraging, with no day away from work cases and no recordable injuries in 2013 – in what is a technically complex work environment where safety risks are inherent. We believe this performance is due to the positive engagement of our workforce in safety, evident not only by the low number of recordable incidents, but also by the efforts made to report near misses – events that had the potential, in slightly different circumstances, to result in consequences that would have been recordable. Near miss reporting is valuable because it provides leading information on the likelihood of actual incidents and can contribute to continuous improvement.

Our large-scale deepwater Plutão, Saturno, Vénus and Marte (PSVM) operation reached its plateau production rate of 150,000 barrels per day, less than one year after starting production in December 2012. The operation reached this production capacity with the start-up of a new well in the Marte field in November 2013. PSVM consists of four fields named after ‘dwarf planet’; Plutão; and planets; Saturno, Vénus and Marte – spread over an area 34 kilometres wide and in water depths of up to 2,000 metres. 


The fields produce hydrocarbons via a large floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), which was the first FPSO in Angolan ultra-deep water. It has storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels. The new well, MA-PA, was the first well from the Marte field to be brought online to the PSVM FPSO. All four fields are now producing. 

Angola’s southern basins represent the primary areas on the African margin that replicate the world class pre-salt carbonate play on the conjugate Brazilian margin

In December 2011 BP signed production sharing agreements awarded BP Angola the operatorship of blocks 19 and 24, and non-operating interests in blocks 20 and 25 confirming access to new offshore blocks in the Kwanza and Benguela basins with a total acreage of 24,240km2. The potential of these acquisitions is underpinned by the geology of the basins, which is thought to mirror Brazil’s hydrocarbon-rich pre-salt play.

Block 19 – Operated by BP
Partners: BP 50%, Sonangol P&P 40%, China Sonangol 10%
Area: 4,900 square kilometres
Water depth: varies from ~500m – 1,800 metres
Fields: None – exploration phase

Block 24 – Operated by BP
Partners: BP 50%, Sonangol P&P 50%
Area: 4,470 sq. kilometres
Water depth: varies from ~600m – 1,800 metres
Fields: None – exploration phase

Block 20 – Operated by Cobalt International Energy
Partners: Cobalt International Energy 40%, BP 30%, Sonangol P&P 30%

Block 25 – Operated by Total (TEPA)
Partners: Total 35%, Sonangol P&P 30%, Statoil 20%, BP 15%
Area: 4,842 sq. kilometres
Water depth: varies from ~300 – 2,100 metres
Fields: None – exploration phase

Angola LNG

We are shareholders in the Angola LNG joint venture which owns a liquefied natural gas plant near Soyo in Zaire province in the north of Angola. Angola LNG is a joint venture between Sonangol, Chevron, BP, ENI and Total. BP has a 13.6% share in the venture. It is the first liquefied natural gas facility in the country and represents the largest single investment in the onshore Angolan oil and gas industry. 


The plant will initially have one LNG train with a capacity of 5.2 million tonnes of production per year, as well as related gas liquids products. Once fully operational, it will receive approximately one billion cubic feet of associated gas per day gas from a number of offshore producing blocks, transported through a pipeline infrastructure. 


Following delays in starting up the plant, it began operations and shipped its first cargo in June 2013. The first cargo was sold to Angola’s state oil and gas company Sonangol and was shipped to Brazil by the SS Sonangol Sambizanga, one of seven 160,000m3 LNG vessels that are under long-term charter to the Angola LNG project. In first quarter of 2014 the Angola LNG plant produced and sold a number of LNG cargoes, along with its first LPG, pressurised butane and condensate cargoes. The plant experienced technical issues in April 2014 which have caused an unplanned interruption to production. It was decided to bring forward plant’s planned shutdown to address both technical and plant capacity issues. It is expected that this work will continue into the next year, with expected plant restart in 2016