Joaquín Lo Cane, from TotalEnergies: “Fénix will produce gas equivalent to 15 LNG ships”

Joaquin Lo CaneDirector of Operations of TotalEnergies participated for Scope of debatewith whom he had a one-on-one with the journalist Sebastian D. Penelliwhere he explained the state of the Phoenix offshore platformwhich the French company will soon put into production in Tierra del Fuego.

“The offshore gas production platform is the sixth one we have installed in Tierra del Fuego. It is basically a structure that is installed at a depth of about 70 meters, that structure will support what we call topside In English, this is the first part of the process that will receive production in the wells that we will drill under the sea, about 2,500 meters away from the platform, to develop the gas in this case,” Lo Cane explained at the beginning of the conversation.

According to the manager, once the three wells have been put into production, the Fénix platform will produce 10 million cubic meters per day of gas, which is equivalent to 8% of the average daily production in Argentina. “To give an order of magnitude equivalent to 15 LNG ships in the winter. In the winter, which is where consumption increases, domestic demand, that production will allow us to save 15 LNG ships, with the cost of that gas, when we import it.”held.

Why was it decided to drill the Fénix gas wells in that location and not in another?he asked. Lo Cane replied: “It is the optimal place to maximize reserves. Unlike offshore, where you can choose where you put the well, and then connect it with airways, here the investment in the structure above the sea has a very large impact on generation. So we can remove a single platform and from there we seek to develop a long-range well. The drilling technology we use allows us to go far, drill horizontally until we reach the target and to optimize the costs of those wells, we choose the geometric point that allows us to minimize the distance of those wells and maximize the reserves.”

The director of operations of TotalEnergies He explained that today’s directional drilling technology has evolved a lot compared to that used in the 1990s, when the company managed to drill the longest well in the world, but that there is continuity. “At that time it was 10 kilometers from the coast and we did it with technology very similar to what we use today, although I would say that today that technology is still evolving, but the basic principles of directional drilling are almost the same as we used 26 years ago.”held.

Lo Cane and the moderator shared a visit to the platform a few days ago and were able to tour and learn first-hand how Fénix operates. “The only way to reach the platform is by helicopter. We had to use special suits. Then, inside the platform, we had to use other safety equipment. Many safety induction classes and talks to be safe, to feel safe,” he said. Sebastian D. Penelli.

Currently, around 140 people work on the platform. “Safety is a very important value for us. We have a long history of developing offshore fields around the world and we can only achieve this by putting a very important focus on safety. The suits are for, in case of an accident, to be protected from the low temperature of the Austral Sea, then the safety elements to be able to walk around the facilities without hurting anyone,” Lo Cane completed.

Why are there so many nationalities within the offshore operation?

“The offshore industry – said Lo Cane – is highly developed in the North Sea, in Africa, Asia, also in Brazil, and the skills come from the countries where this activity is carried out. Here in Argentina we have six platforms that we installed. We started operations in Tierra del Fuego in 1978. Our drilling includes more than 100 exploration and development wells, offshore wells, but it is quite sporadic., We drill every 5 or 10 years offshore and these are very prolific deposits that produce for a long time.”he commented during the interview.

With collaborators of different nationalities, such as French, Romanian and American, among others, the challenge is to understand each other. “The skills to operate these machines require people who have already developed that skill and for their life. But at the same time we have many people from Tierra del Fuego and southern Patagonia working on the projects. One of the biggest challenges we have is communication. We have a translator who makes sure that our local staff, who we can develop to acquire this knowledge, can communicate well with the local staff,” he said.

The director of operations of TotalEnergies confirmed the start of gas production. “We are starting the well connection activities. We hope to be able to put it into production at the end of September, beginning of October, and start using the production from the first well. Then we have two more, which we will be connecting over three months each,” he announced.

The total investment for Fénix will be 700 million dollarswhich include, among other works, the installation, construction and laying of 36 kilometers of underwater pipes, which is the distance that separates the Fenix ​​platform from the Vega Pléyade platform, which is the one that is producing, and which will be connected. This investment is made with PAE and Wintershall Dea, which has now passed into the hands of Harbour. The treatment plant will be located on the coast. Cullen Riverwhich is the one that receives all the hydrocarbons and then sends them to another plant, which is a few kilometers to the north, which is called Alfa Canyon.

If we add the gas operation that it also has TotalEnergies in Dead Cowplus offshore and Fénix operating with 10 million cubic meters, the company will have more than a third of the gas operations in Argentina. This means that every time someone turns on the gas in Argentina to cook a dish, such as milanesas, one in three is cooked with gas operated by TotalEnegies.

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“TotalEnergies works in more than 170 countries. We are world leaders in the development of offshore fields. I don’t think there is any company like Total that doesn’t have developments in Africa, Asia, Europe, the North Sea and we are the only ones to have the southernmost development in the world. We started in 1978 and everything we did here in Argentina, which has been very successful, we wouldn’t have been able to do if we didn’t have these partners who have been evolving. PAE has been with us from the beginning and the truth is that it is very pleasant to work with them where we share many experiences in front, very positive”Lo Cane highlighted.