Ejiofor Alike
The 200,000 barrels per day capacity Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel for Total’s $16 billion Egina deepwater field will arrive Nigeria in March or April 2017, the company has said.
The FPSO is being built by Samsung Heavy Industries of Korea at a cost of $3.3 billion, while the entire Egina field development project, including the FPSO will cost $16 billion.
Speaking to journalists during a recent facility tour of the company’s facilities in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the Deputy Managing Director of Total E & P in charge of Deepwater District, Mr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa said Egina was the company’s next deepwater field in development phase after the discovery in 2003 and the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2013.
He stated that the company’s target is to produce 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Egina by 2018.
Musa said the development of Egina by Total and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at a critical time when most other companies were not willing to invest, was a demonstration of Total’s boldness.
According to him, for Total to embark on such $16 billion project when other companies were not willing, showed the company was confident in Nigeria’s operating environment.
He said the Egina project is about 54 per cent completed with 11 wells drilled – seven oil producing wells and four water injection wells.
Musa also revealed that a lot of the fabrication work for Egina field, which is located two kilometers into the waters, had been completed by Saipem, Nestoil, Nigerdock, Dorman Long and Aveon.
“Egina is the next field on development phase. It was discovered in 2003 with FID taken in 2013. It is in the same environment with Akpo in the same Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130. For Total to sanction $16 billion project when nobody was willing to invest shows the company’s boldness. Total committed hundreds of millions of dollars without guarantee. Egina FPSO is one of the largest in the world. Sometime in March or April 2017, the Apapa Wharf will be blocked when the 300 metres FPSO will come into the country,” Musa explained.
On the Nigerian Content scope of the Egina Project, Musa said the project was caught up with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act of 2010, stressing that despite the challenges in the operating environment, Total was in full compliance to the Act.
According to him, 70 per cent of the project is local content, adding that “the framework of Egina is always local content.”
Speaking on the Akpo deepwater field, Musa said Akpo, a developed asset on OML 130 was currently producing 145,000 barrels per day.
Musa, who also spoke on the field’s milestones, noted that Akpo does not flare gas, except safety flares in the case of emergency.
He said the field achieved seven years with no loss time injury on March 29, 2016.
According to him, the field was shut down between February and March this year because of two much activities on the FPSO.
“So, we shut down Akpo, which saw its last field development plan a month ago. The water depth is 1,400 meters, about 1.5 kilometres, while the storage capacity of the FPSO is 2 million barrels,” he added.
