Michael James
with Agency Report
08 July 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — It is unclear when Total’s Egina FPSO will sail away from Samsung Heavy Industries, SHI shipyard in Geoje, South Korea to arrival Nigeria following an accident which led to multiple fatalities.
The accident has forced Total to delay two of its offshore development projects (Egina inclusive) to varying degrees.
However, Executive Vice President of Samsung, Mr Younsang Won earlier revealed that the on-going construction of the multi-billion dollar Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) project will arrive Nigeria in August 2017.
Younsang Won stated this when the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside paid a working visit to Samsung Shipyard in the Samsung Heavy Industries in Geoje, South Korea.
Younsang did not disclose the actual date the FPSO will sail-away from South Korea but earlier media report indicated that the sail-away might likely be in June.
Meanwhile Arnaud Breuillac, President, Exploration & Production at Total said the company has seconded specialists to the investigation into the causes of the accident, and all works at the yard were suspended for several days.
Work related to the Martin Linge project, 180 km (112 mi) west of Bergen in the Norwegian North Sea, were suspended until June 1, and this has delayed shipment of modules from the yard to Norway.
Installation of the modules and lifting operations can only be performed in the summertime due to prevailing weather conditions in the Norwegian North Sea and these have now had to be postponed until summer 2018.
Taking into account subsequent hookup and commissioning operations, the production start has now been pushed back to the first half of 2019.
Work on the Nigerian deepwater Egina FPSO resumed following a two-week suspension and in this case the impact on the project, expected to start up during the second half of 2018, will be limited.
The Egina development is in block OML 130, 150 km (93 mi) off the Nigerian coast.
As for the central processing facility for the INPEX-operated Ichthys project offshore northwest Australia, this had already departed the Geoje yard several days before the accident and is now installed on the field.
Start-up of Ichthys has therefore not been impacted and should go ahead during 1Q 2018.
