FMC Technologies has contracted Aveon Offshore to fabricate more than 5,000 metric tons (5,511 tons) of subsea structures for the Egina field development offshore Nigeria.
Operator Total Upstream Nigeria awarded FMC the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning contract for the subsea production systems.
Aveon is performing fabrication at its 240,000-sq m (2.58-million sq ft) yard in Rumuolumeni, near Port Harcourt. First steel was cut in December. Load-out and sail-away of the subsea structures is expected to get under way during the second half of 2015.
Total Exploration and Production Nigeria commenced the development of the $15 billion (N2.4trillion) Nigeria’s offshore Egina field as part of its plan to boost production in July 2013.
First oil from the field, which is part of the Oil Mining Lease, OML 130, is expected at the end of 2017, with output reaching 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
The Egina project calls for 44 wells connected to a 330 meter-long floating production, storage and offloading vessel which can store 2.3 million barrels. Locally worked hours will reach about 75 per cent for Egina as part of a plan to boost local content of Nigerian projects.
Already a $3.1billion Floating Production, Storage and Offloading, (FPSO), vessel contract for the oil field has been awarded to South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries, SHI.
The multibillion Egina field located in Oil Mining Lease, OML130 near Akpo Field, is the third deep offshore development projects of the French oil giant in Nigeria with reserve potential of in excess of 550 million barrels and a peak production of 150,000 barrels per day.
The FPSO contract was awarded to Samsung after a comprehensive review of the economics, the track records of the bidders and having met all the local content requirements including 12,000-15000 tons in- country fabrication of topsides
Besides, he said the FPSO will have topsides modules with a gross dry weight of 34,000tonnes, which will be delivered on schedule for the production activities this year.
The Egina field was discovered in December 2003, when the Egina-1 well was drilled. Following the discovery, the appraisal well Egina-2 was drilled in October 2004. The appraisal programme and seismic data processing resulted in the Egina-3 well drilling in September 2006, which occurred at a water depth of approximately 1,500m. Following this, Egina-4 was drilled in November 2006, and Egina-5 was drilled in January 2007.
Located 150km off the coast of Nigeria and about 20 km from Akpo oil field, the Egina oil field in Oil Mining Lease, OML 130 is a production sharing contract, PSC, being developed by Total Upstream Nigeria (24%) in partnership with NNPC (10%), CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (5%) and Petrobras (16%).
Egina is the third deep offshore development of Total in Nigeria. The field is currently under development and the production is scheduled to begin by 2014/2015.
By: Olusola Bello
