Exxon Mobil has announced that its subsidiary Esso Exploration Angola has started production from the Marimba North project, designed to develop 80 million barrels of oil in approximately 3,900 feet of water more than 90 miles off the coast of Angola.

The Marimba North project is a tie-back to the Kizomba A development and has come onstream ahead of schedule and within budget. Major components of the Marimba North project include subsea wells, a single drill center, 30KM of flowlines and a unique riser system that ties the production flowline into the existing Kizomba A tension leg platform. The Marimba North production and control facilities have been integrated with the existing Kizomba A development to effectively and cost efficiently utilize the existing field facilities.

The project will add about 40,000 barrels per day of peak production capacity to the existing Block 15 production, which includes the Xikomba, Kizomba A and Kizomba B developments. With the addition of Marimba North, Block 15 will produce about 540,000 barrels of oil per day with combined estimated recoverable resources of 2 billion barrels of oil. A fourth Block 15 development, the Kizomba C project, is planned to develop an additional 600 million barrels in the Mondo, Saxi and Batuque fields.

Mark Albers, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil, said: The Marimba project demonstrates our commitment to helping meet the world’s growing need for energy through timely and cost-efficient development of new capacity. The project is a good example of ExxonMobil’s ability to integrate innovative technical solutions with detailed execution planning, which maximizes the value of the resource for our shareholders and the government of Angola.