Dalia, a complex project

It was immediately apparent that Dalia was a project unprecedented in its complexity, especially due to the number of subsea wells needed to extract oil from the reservoirs, estimated to contain 1 billion barrels of oil. The project was highly based on the Girassol Project but, the oil itself posed additional problems; it was very thick, and innovative new technical solutions needed to be invented to transport it to the surface to be processed aboard the FPSO. The first that spring to mind are the heated pipelines, designed to prevent the oil from setting and forming hydrates which would block the pipeline: the highly insulated flexible risers with IPB technology: and gas injection at the foot of the risers to promote flow towards the surface. Another solution was the horizontal subsea wells, which boosted the field’s performance by using drill through techniques to drill across the wellheads. Despite the many complications, this major project, managed as an integrated project, was completed under budget and in a record time of 43 months, and 45 months has since become the norm for this type of project. In terms of local content, Délia provided an opportunity to showcase AngolaTotal AngolaShow more’s newfound prowess in manufacturing, visible at the Dande base, or the Angolflex umbilical cable factory built in Lobito. The HSE side of the project was also remarkable, with no fatal accidents occurring during 20 million man-hours. Its highly technical profile and the fact that all targets were met means that Délia is still used as a textbook case for third party mega-projects in which Total is a current partner as the Libra Project in Brazil, or a prospective one.

The main artisans of this beautiful project were, furthurmore the Project Director, MM Jacques Thebault: the Technical Director; Genevieve Mouillerat, FPSO Project Manager; Marc Perrot, Project manager of  SPS underwater well heads and manifolds; Michel Gloaguen, Project Manager SURF :pipelines, risers and subsea facilities,and many other : Anne Courbot, Operations, Jean Marc Ichbia , reservoir and geology, Eric Cassé, drilling. This success has also been the excellence of our SONANGOL supervisory authority, those of our partners Exxon, BP, Statoil, Hydro and, of course, the technical support of the Head office and its management.