Golar LNG’s converted floating LNG producer Gimi and the GTA FPSO, which will serve the first phase of BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim FLNG project located offshore Mauritania and Senegal, are expected to arrive on the project’s site in the fourth quarter of this year.
UK-based energy giant BP recently said that the launch of the Tortue FLNG project will be pushed back to the first quarter of 2024.
Project partner Kosmos Energy said in May that the project remained on track to achieve its first gas by the end of this year.
The project includes the conversion of Golar LNG’s Gimi to a floating LNG producer at Singapore’s Keppel shipyard.
The 2.5 mtpa Gimi FLNG will serve BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project under a 20-year deal.
Moreover, the project’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit left Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry’s yard in Qidong, China in January this year.
Subsea delay
Kosmos confirmed in its second-quarter results report on Monday that the first gas for the project is now targeted in the first quarter of 2024.
The Texas-based firm attributed this to a delay in completion of the subsea work scope.
“Due to a delay in the subsea workstream, the operator has put in place a plan to finish installation of the infield flowlines and subsea structures in the first quarter of 2024,” the company said.
According to Kosmos, construction and mechanical completion activities of the Gimi FLNG are “finishing and pre-commissioning work is underway”.
Sailaway is targeted around the end of the third quarter of 2023 with the vessel expected to arrive on location around the end of 2023 when hookup work is expected to start, it said.
As per the FPSO, arrival on location offshore Mauritania and Senegal is expected in the fourth quarter of 2023 to align with the revised schedule for the subsea work scope, it said.
The partners completed drilling of all four wells with expected production capacity “significantly” higher than what is required for first gas, Kosmos said.
In addition, construction work of the hub terminal is complete, and activity is focused on progressing handover to operations in the third quarter of 2023, it said.
Following completion of commissioning activities at the site offshore Mauritania and Senegal, the FPSO will process natural gas – removing condensate, water, and other impurities – before exporting it by pipeline to the project’s FLNG facilities, 10km offshore.
With eight processing and production modules, the FPSO will process around 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The FLNG will liquefy majority of the gas, enabling export to international markets, while some of the supplies will help meet growing demand in the two host countries, BP previously said.
Second phase
Besides the first phase, BP and its partners are also working on the second phase.
In February, BP and partners confirmed the development concept for the second phase of the GTA LNG project that they will take forward to the next stage of evaluation.
The partnership, composed of BP, Petrosen, SMH, and Kosmos will evaluate a gravity-based structure (GBS) as the basis for the GTA Phase 2 expansion project with total capacity of between 2.5-3 million tonnes per annum.
The concept design will also include new wells and subsea equipment, integrating with and expanding on existing GTA infrastructure.