BP Takes Delivery of FPSO Vessel for Mauritania-Senegal Project
by Jov Onsat|Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, June 05, 2024
The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for a Mauritania-Senegal project of BP PLC has arrived at its final location on the maritime border of the two countries, the British energy giant said Tuesday.
The vessel, built at China’s COSCO Qidong Shipyard, will serve the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas project, which is planned to produce 2.3 million metric tons per annum in the first phase of development.
“An integral component of the project, it [the FPSO vessel] is currently being moored as the team works towards safely delivering first gas”, BP said in a press release.
GTA had been planned to start production 2022 according to BP’s announcement of the final investment decision December 21, 2018. However the project has faced delays.
Kosmos Energy Ltd., one of BP’s three project partners alongside Petrosen SA and Société Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures, said in its fourth quarter 2023 financial report November 6, 2023, that the subsea contractor had been replaced.
With the arrival of the FPSO, GTA is now nearing the “final stages before start-up”, BP said in a separate statement on its website.
“Seven years in the making, something remarkable is taking shape in the ocean where Mauritania and Senegal meet”, BP said. “A project, which includes a breakwater, subsea, a floating liquefied natural gas facility (FLNG), and floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) – each an engineering feat in its own right – is now in place as the finish line approaches for the development of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Phase 1 mega-project”.
The FLNG vessel had arrived earlier, as announced by BP February 15. The vessel, called Gimi, is owned and operated by Bermuda-based Golar LNG Ltd. The FPSO is operated by BP, the 56 percent owner-operator in the phase one project.
“It’s a massive civil engineering project, two massive shipbuilding projects, and a massive pipelines project all in one – and they all need to be safely and flawlessly integrated”, Alan Edwards, GTA general manager for subsea, said in comments for the delivery of the FPSO.
The FPSO consists of 81,000 metric tons of steel, 37,000 meters (121,391.1 feet) of pipe spools and 1.52 million meters (five million feet) of cable. Its area is the equivalent of two football fields, and will have 140 people onboard during normal operation, according to BP.
Subsea pipelines and other installations—the deepest in Africa—will feed into the FPSO, which will process gas delivered from wells 2,800 meters (9,186.4 feet) underwater and about 120 kilometers (74.6 miles) offshore. The gas processing will remove heavier hydrocarbon components. The processed gas will then travel by pipeline to the FLNG vessel at the GTA Hub. In the FLNG unit, the gas is cryogenically cooled in four liquefaction trains and stored before transfer to LNG carriers. Gimi can store up to 125,000 cubic meters (4.4 million cubic feet) of LNG, according to BP.
Gimi, built 1976 and converted 2023 with an output capacity of 2.45 million metric tons per annum, has been chartered to BP for 20 years, according to Golar. Announcing the departure of the vessel November 19 from Singapore, where Gimi was built by Seatrium Oil & Gas Ltd., Golar said, “Upon arrival, FLNG Gimi will notify BP that it is ready to be moored and connected to the hub, which is expected to trigger the start of contractual cash flows under the 20-year Lease and Operate Agreement on the GTA field”.
The Tortue field is estimated to hold 15 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, according to a GTA factsheet on BP’s website.