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In February, Golar LNG’s 2.5 mtpa FLNG Gimi, which was converted from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cbm, arrived at the GTA hub.
After that, the project’s floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit also arrived in May at the GTA project off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal.
With eight processing and production modules, the FPSO will process around 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The gas supplies will then be transported by pipeline to the FLNG unit at the GTA hub where it will be cryogenically cooled in the vessel’s four liquefaction trains and stored before transfer to LNG carriers.
Cool down
Kosmos revealed in its second-quarter earnings results on Monday that the FLNG is expected to receive a pre-commissioning cargo to accelerate the cool down of the unit later this month.
Asked about to further explain the cargo during the company’s earnings call on Monday, Inglis said the safest way to commission a gas facility is with buyback of gas because “you’re using a sort of known source of gas.”
“There’s no production upsets as you start the commissioning process. So, it allows us to have a much smoother start to that initial step to cool down the FLNG vessel before introducing sort of the high pressure gas that would come from the field,” he said.
“So, from an efficiency point of view and a safety point of view, it’s the right thing to do, but clearly, what it allows us to do is accelerate that pre commissioning process,” Inglis said.
He said the objective is to have that cargo connected later this month, and then the partners can start the cooldown process.
LNG cargoes in Q4
“So, as you sort of go through the steps, the first thing is to sort of the subsea mechanical completion to enable the gas to flow from the well through to the FPSO. We are on track to do that this quarter,” he said.
“The next step is clearly the finishing of all of the work by Technip, to pre-commission, hand over to BP so they can take operational control of the FPSO,” Inglis said.
Inglis said that, again, is targeted in September with first gas “shortly thereafter.”
“And in advance of that, you’ve enabled the cooldown of the LNG tanks to have occurred, which means, in essence as that gas is introduced from the FPSO, you’re into the process of making LNG, which clearly leads to the cargoes in the fourth quarter,” he said.
“So that’s sort of how it all fits together. And I think the cooldown cargo is an important step just to accelerate the process and allow us to do things in parallel rather than purely in sequence,” Inglis said.
Second phase
In February last year, BP and partners Kosmos, PETROSEN, and SMH 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 will evaluate a gravity-based structure (GBS) as the basis for the GTA Phase 2 expansion project (GTA2) with total capacity of between 2.5-3 million tonnes per annum.
GBS LNG developments have a static connection to the seabed with the structure providing LNG storage and a foundation for liquefication facilities.
The concept design will also include new wells and subsea equipment, integrating with and expanding on existing GTA infrastructure.
BP and its partners said at the time they are working with contractors to progress the concept towards the pre-FEED stage.
Inglis also discussed the second phase during the earnings call.
“We’ve built the infrastructure to enable Phase 1. The Phase 2 expansion as a result is low cost,” he said.
“It is a brownfield modification of the FPSO to enable us to process more gas through the facility. And clearly, we’re not far away from getting the early production results from the initial development wells,” he said.
“Most capital efficient way”
“So obviously, the conversation is about how do we now progress Phase 2 and do it in the most capital efficient way and in a timely fashion,” he said.
“And that’s also important to the government of both countries, both in Mauritania and Senegal, because the economics, clearly, of the next phase are superior to the initial phase,” he said.
“And therefore, for all parties, the expansion of the project is a win-win. So that’s actually the conversation that’s ongoing at the moment with both of the NOCs and with the government is, how do we progress that project and with a real focus on capital efficiency, because the next phase has to be a rigorous project,” Inglis said.
“The execution has to be in the most capital-efficient way that enables us to take the best advantage of the infrastructure that we built in,” he said.
“We need to finish Phase 1 and get it on. And we’re not there yet, but we’re very close,” he said.
“And then of course the conversation naturally then is to how do we optimize everything that we put in and get to the next phase, which is clearly a very good project,” he said.
“So, yeah, we’re not waiting, and those conversations are occurring within the partnership. But first gas is clearly a step on that journey,” Inglis concluded.