Nigeria’s oil and gas industry wednesday recorded another milestone as the $3.3 billion Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) unit for the 200,000 barrels per day capacity Egina Deepwater oilfield arrived the country from South Korea.
The Egina oilfield, which is being developed at the cost of $16 billion, would come on stream at the end of 2018.
The FPSO, which was built for Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, (TUPNI) by Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), sailed away from the quay side at Samsung Yard in Geoje, South Korea, on October 31, 2017, on its voyage to Nigeria.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, (TUPNI) and other partners in the Egina project – CNOOC, SAPETRO and PETROBRAS, welcomed the FPSO, which berthed at the newly built 500-metre FPSO integration quayside at the Samsung Yard (SHI-MCI Yard), at the LADOL Free Zone in Lagos.
Speaking during the arrival ceremony, the Managing Director of Total E & P, Mr. Nicholas Terraz, said the six locally fabricated modules would be integrated into the FPSO at the Samsung Yard over the next six months before the FPSO sails away to the Egina field, adding that the local integration of the FPSO is a first for Nigeria and Africa.
He said with a length of 330 metres, the Egina FPSO is the largest FPSO ever installed in Nigeria and the largest FPSO built by the Total Group worldwide.
According to him, the integration of the six locally fabricated topside modules at the SHI-MCI Yard before its final sail-away to the Egina field is a game changer as far as the execution of deep offshore oil and gas projects in the country is concerned.
According to him, it is also a remarkable achievement in local content development in Nigeria.
“Being the first project to be launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act in 2010, Egina is advancing Nigerian Content to record levels and has by far the highest quantum of local content completed for any oil & gas project in Nigeria, but also for Total’s projects worldwide,” Terraz said.
Terraz added that several technological feats have been recorded by the various entities involved in the Egina project.
According to him, Egina is the deepest offshore development carried out so far in Nigeria, with water depths over 1,500 metres.
He stated that the Egina operations will generate significant activities for local contractors, in various sectors and continue to provide avenues for the training and development of Nigerians in various domains.
In her speech, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman stated that the arrival of the FPOS to Lagos has vindicated the federal government’s liberalisation policy, adding that the NPA remains committed to ensuring that operators compete favourably.
“The industry has been liberalised; I believe we are all familiar with the monopoly around the oil and gas terminals. So for the FPSO to come to Lagos today shows that any investor can take any vessel to any oil and gas to any terminal in the country. Every terminal is free to receive oil and gas cargo and any FPSO and that enable all investors to have the comfort that there is no specific location that is designated for that purpose,” she said.
“Today we se have seen the justification for liberalization whereby you can take any oil and gas vessel to any location in the country. All terminal operators need to compete and the NPA seeks to ensure that there is a level playing field for everybody to compete favourably as supposed to having a monopoly which stifles investors by insisting on using certain terminals that might not provide afavourable financial position,” she added.
The Egina field was discovered by TUPNI in 2003 within the Oil Mining License (OML) 130, some 200 kilometres south of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Samsung Heavy Industries had won the contract for the building of the FPSO at the cost of $3.3 billion after a competitive bidding process.
As a commitment to building local capacity and ensuring technology transfer, Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited together with its joint venture partner established SHI-MCI FZE (SHI-MCI) as a joint venture entity.
Media gathered that the SHI-MCI facility, located at Tarkwa Bay, is West Africa’s first fabrication and integration yard and is on a land mass spanning 121,000m2and has a 502 metre long deep quay wall that is the largest in Africa.
Six out of the 18 modules of the Egina FPSO were fabricated in Nigeria which is a first time achievement for the country.
With state of the art equipment and technology know-how, SHI-MCI has the capacity to fabricate 10,000 metric tonnes and is recording high productivity at an early stage of its operations due principally to the influx of Samsung’s technical expertise which has greatly aided speedy technology transfer.
Samsung invested over $300 million for the construction of the fabrication yard and through SHI-MCI, has committed to technology transfer and training of local capacity in the field of shipbuilding and offshore plant manufacturing technologies.
The Egina project has set the bar very high in terms of compliance with Local Content laws with over 1,000 Nigerians employed in various capacities.
The arrival of the Egina FPSO in Nigeria is a huge milestone towards the completion of the Egina Project and eventual recovery of first oil
