Swiss-based offshore contractor Allseas has completed the infield pipelay scope for BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim FLNG project located offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
In October 2023, UK-based energy giant BP selected Allseas to complete the remaining subsea pipelay scope for the FLNG project, replacing previous contractor Houston-based McDermott.
Allseas said in December that it has started GTA offshore pipelay work using what it says is the world’s largest construction vessel, Pioneering Spirit. Allseas’ offshore construction support vessel Oceanic provided installation support.
“Two months after arriving in the field, production crew welded, scanned and field joint coated the final piece of pipe for the second 16-inch export gas line,” Allseas said in a statement on Tuesday.
The contract covered the installation of about 75 kilometers outstanding on the two 16-inch export pipelines with field termination assemblies in water depths between 1,500 and 2,800 meters, and also four 10-inch CRA infield lines with FTAs up to two kilometers long in 2,800 meters of water.
“To meet our own ambitious production rate, the main firing line and double jointing facilities on Pioneering Spirit have run in parallel throughout the campaign. Pioneering Spirit will conclude the offshore works by installing the six outstanding flowline termination assemblies,” Allseas said.
Tortue FLNG arrived at GTA site
BP recently said that Golar LNG’s converted FLNG, Gimi, arrived at the site of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
The firm said that it is “fully focused on safely completing the project” but it did not provide any information regarding commissioning activities and the commercial launch of the delayed project.
Last month, Golar said that the FLNG, which was converted from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cbm, arrived at the site.
However, Golar and BP have agreed that the FLNG “will proceed to moor offshore Tenerife while awaiting completion of the necessary preparatory activities,” Golar said at the time.
The FLNG departed Seatrium’s yard in Singapore on November 19.
The FLNG vessel is at the heart of the GTA Phase 1 development, operated by BP with partners, Kosmos Energy, PETROSEN, and SMH.
The project is set to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year.
The GTA Phase 1 project will produce gas from reservoirs in deep water, about 120km offshore, through a subsea system to a floating production and storage offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will initially process the gas, removing heavier hydrocarbon components.
Moreover, the gas will then be transported by pipeline to the FLNG vessel at the GTA hub where it will be cryogenically cooled in the vessel’s four liquefaction trains and stored before transfer to LNG carriers.
FPSO in Tenerife
As per the project’s FPSO unit, it left Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry’s yard in Qidong, China in January last year.
With eight processing and production modules, the FPSO will process around 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
Kosmos previously said the FPSO was expected to arrive on location in the first quarter of 2024.
Its AIS data showed on Wednesday it was located in Tenerife.
Golar said in its third-quarter report that commissioning of the FLNG project is expected to take about six months from the commissioning start date with commercial operations (COD) expected thereafter.
This means that the commercial launch of the project could be achieved in the third quarter of 2024.