Exxon Mobil Corporation announced the CLOV project in Angola started up on schedule and is expected to reach daily production capacity of 160,000 barrels in the coming months.

CLOV is the fourth major development hub of Total-operated Block 17, after Girassol, Dalia and Pazflor. An ExxonMobil affiliate has a 20 percent working interest in CLOV, which will produce oil from the four fields of Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta at water depths ranging from 3,600 feet to 4,593 feet.

'Block 17, along with Esso Angola-operated Block 15, in which the company has a 40 percent working interest, are the most productive blocks in Angola,' said Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Development Company.

CLOV, located 87 miles offshore Luanda, includes 34 wells and eight manifolds connected by 112 miles of subsea pipelines to a floating production storage and offloading vessel and crude oil offloading terminal.

The 1,000-foot-long, 197-foot-wide vessel can store up to 1.8 million barrels of oil. Natural gas produced at CLOV will be exported through a subsea pipeline to an Angola liquefied natural gas plant in Soyo.

Tags: Exxon Mobil Corporation