Total Upstream Nigeria Production Unit has said that the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) for the Usan deep offshore field will arrive Nigeria by end of this month.
According to the company, the FPSO which is sailing from South Korea, is programmed to arrive Nigeria between July 27 and 31, 2011, adding that it is on scheduled.
Spokesman for the company Charles Ebereonwu confirmed that the vessel would arrive by month end.
This would be followed by mooring and hook up of wells and production lines to the FPSO, leading to the first oil in January 2012, Total said.
Production from the field is expected to peak at 180,000 b/d. The Usan field is Total’s second biggest project offshore of Nigeria.
The FPSO, with an unprecedented local content of 11 million man- hours of work, has cast off from its in South Korea to begin tow out from the HHI shipyard and sail-away for an estimated three-month journey to Nigeria.
The FPSO is 320m long, 61m wide and 32m high; weighing 125,000 metric tons with a storage capacity of 2 million barrels. It has 7,500 metric tons of modules built in-country by Nigerian companies.
It is carrying 177 people who will remain on board until they are relieved by a new crew. Another partial c rew change will then follow off Walbis Bay in Namibia.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is concessionaire for OPL 222 under a production sharing contract operated by Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (20%), in partnership with Chevron Petroleum Nigeria Limited (30%),
Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited (30%) and Nexen Petroleum Nigeria Limited (20%).
