Italians seeking FSO to beef up redevelopment at Libya play
Eni has launched a new floater project as part of its Bouri field redevelopment off Libya.
The Italian company is on the hunt for a newbuild floating storage and offloading vessel to replace the existing Sloug FSO, which has been on location for nearly two decades.
Industry sources suggested that none of the major floater contractors, including Saipem, will want to bid this contract given how busy they are on production vessel bids, perhaps leaving the way clear for the smaller companies to chase the job.
Eni was set to unveil the FSO package last summer but sources said lukewarm interest from the market at that time led it to stall the bid process.
The operator had apparently considered dealing with shipyards directly but is unclear if it will consider this option again.
Eni received pre-qualification documents this week. The forward strategy is currently unknown although sources said a unit could possibly be on location in 2009 at the earliest.
The new FSO will be designed for at least a 35-year life and will be moored in a water depth of about 170 metres.
The operator's "preferred "double-hull size is in the 200,000-250,000 deadweight tonne range with a "target" storage capacity of about 1.5 million barrels--the same as the Sloug--with extra capacity of 100,000 barrels in slop tanks.
Other requirements are that the vessel be bow-moored with a 60-person living quarters at its stern.
The successful contractor will also have to provide the floater's mooring system, designed to allow the unit to weather vane freely.
The new FSO's export system will have to allow export of 1.1 million barrels of oil in less than one day via side-to-side transfer.
Bouri has been on stream since 1990 and, in addition to the current FSO, is being exploited via two large, fixed steel platforms with a four-well subsea complex adding to output last year.
The field is located in Block NC 41 where Eni is partnered by Libya's state-owned National Oil Company (NOC) and which is a key asset in a 10-year, $28 billion agreement that the two parties signed two weeks ago to boost oil and gas recovery in the Maghreb country.
Eni and NOC agreed to convert their existing petroleum contracts to the most recent contractual model (EPSA IV) with new expiry dates of 2042 for the production of oil and 2047 for gas.
They will continue to explore the NC-41 offshore area as well as strengthen their Mellitah hub by expanding gas export capacity from 8 billion to 16 billion cubic metres per year.
This expansion will be achieved by upgrading the Greenstream export line by 3 Bcm per year, to increase export capacity to Italy, and by building a new LNG plant with a capacity of 5 Bcm annually.
IAIN ESAU
© Upstream 2007
