THE Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has commenced
arrangements to build a new world-class Floating Production Storage and
Offloading (FPSO) vessel, with indications that it would take the Final
Investment Decision (FDI) before the end of this year.
The FPSO, expected to emerge the world biggest, would aid
the development of the Shell-operated Bonga South West-Aparo discovery.
The company’s General Manager for deepwater Nigeria, Jerry
Jackson who said this in the official journal of the 2014 Offshore Technology
Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, noted that Shell has begun contract awards’
process for construction of the FPSO for its $12 billion Bonga South West
Aparo development.
Noting that the tender process for the single-point moored
facility is current out to tenders in Nigeria, he said the major bidders are
Samsung and Hyundai. Concept for selection for the project spans through Oil
Mining Lease (OML118), 132 and 140.
Bonga also lies 120km southwest of the Niger Delta in a
water depth of over 1,000m.
Shell had previously issued a tender in August last year to
source line pipe for Bonga SW-Aparo, a field , which lies in a water dept of
1,400m (4,592 ft) some 135 kilometre (84 miles) offshore Nigeria.
It has planned processing capacity of up to 225,000 barrels
per day (bpd) of oil storage for 2.5 million bpd. The FPSO vessel will be
spread-moored with 82 kilometre (50 miles) of subsea line pipe, including four
production loops, three water injection lines, a 16 inch, 90 kilometre (61
miles) gas export line and 70 kilometre (43 miles) of static umbilicals.
Shell however indicated it was looking to award a contract
for the supply of line pipe for the project during this quarter. The tender
includes line pipe for production, water injection, gas export and gas lift
service, along with flex joints and bend stiffeners.
Managing Director, SNEPCO, Mr. Chike Onyejekwe, had earlier
said that Shell recorded tremendous success in its Bonga deep water oil field,
saying as at December 2012, it had exported about 450 million barrels of crude
oil.
The cost of the Bonga field development, including the cost
of the Floating Production Storage Offshore vessel built in 2004, came to $3.6
billion (N569billion)
Despite the fact that the drilling of the 19 oil wells will
amount to $12.35 billion (N1.96 trillion), the Bonga extension project,
according to Shell, may gulp around $33 billion (N5.2 trillion).
In spite of the fact that the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) had in January 2013 directed International Oil Companies
operating in the country to drastically cut over $30bn (N4.7 billion) proposed
for new projects, Shell said Petroleum Industry Bill, if passed “the way it is”
would drive away investment in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and might
stall the 19 Bonga oil wells.
Courtesy of: Guardianngr
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