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Anticipated increase by 200,000 barrels of oil per day to Nigeria’s oil production (approximately 10 per cent of the country’s total oil production) received impetus following the successful sail-away of the Egina Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO).
This comes on the heels of latest report from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), indicating a drop in revenue by 21 per cent from crude export despite increases in oil prices by Nigeria, which depends largely on oil revenue for its development purposes, a development that is being interrogated by stakeholders.
The $16billion-worth Egina development is the largest deep offshore investment being undertaken by an international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the country in the recent time.
Egina FPSO is designed for 25 years of operations, and reputed as the deepest offshore development carried out so far in Nigeria, in water depths of over 1,500 meters.
The sail away ends many years of cost variation controversies and attendant legislative and regulative probe into allegations of impropriety from several quarters in the project execution, following costs escalation from $6billion to $16billion, due to inflation and exchange rates differentials, but which valuation was put at $6.352billion.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, TUPNI, and partners, Monday, happily announced the sail-away of the vessel from the SHI-MCI Yard, LADOL Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Although the 330-metre long FPSO left the quayside on Sunday, at exactly 5:00am (Nigerian time), it commenced a three-day journey to the Egina Field in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130, located about 150km offshore the Niger Delta.
In a statement on Monday released by Total, the Country Chair and Managing Director, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, was quoted to have said: “The sail away of the Egina FPSO to its final location offshore is a major milestone towards the completion of the project.
With this achievement, we are on track for a start-up of the production by the end of this year.”
According to the statement, upon arrival on the field, the mooring and hook-up operations will commence to connect the FPSO to the subsea facilities, before the start-up of production planned at the end of the year.
“With the successful integration of the six locally fabricated modules at the SHI-MCI Yard, Total has changed how deep offshore oil and gas projects are executed in the country and set new records for Nigerian content,” the statement added.
Being the first project to be launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010, Egina is also reputed as the highest Nigerian Content ever completed in an oil & gas project.
The project has generated significant activities for local contractors, in various sectors and provided avenues for training and development of Nigerians in various domains.
Accordingly, seven months ago, Egina made history as the first FPSO unit to berth at an integration quay in Africa, for the installation of six topside modules that were fabricated in Nigeria.
During the seven months that the FPSO spent at LADOL, the team completed eight million man-hours without any Lost Time Injury.
The Egina field was discovered by TUPNI in 2003, within the OML130, some 200 kilometres south of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
The field is being developed by TUPNI in partnership with NNPC, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO), and PETROBRAS.
