UK major BP says the Raven field, Phase-3 of its 5tcf, $12bn West Nile Delta (WND) project is in “the live commissioning phase” and will be its next “high margin major project” to be brought online. The field was due to come online at the end of 2019. Corrosion issues encountered during the commissioning phase have resulted in a more than 12-month delay (MEES, 7 February 2020), but the firm now says “wells are online.”

While BP, which operates the field with 82.75%, was aiming for start-up at end-2020, its 17.25% partner at WND, German firm Wintershall Dea, in August said it expected the field to come online Q1 this year (MEES, 13 November 2020). Raven is set to produce 900mn cfd of gas and 20-25,000 b/d of condensates, through eight wells, once it ramps-up providing an overall boost to WND output which has seen rapid decline since phase-1 Libra and Taurus fields were brought online in April 2017 (MEES, 15 March 2019 (CONTINUED - 179 WORDS)