China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry said it has completed the construction of the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit that will serve BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim FLNG development offshore Mauritania and Senegal.
In that regard, Cosco Shipping’s yard in Qidong hosted the FPSO completion ceremony on September 9, attended by officials from EPC contractor Technip Energies and owner BP, according to a statement.
Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry said the GTA FPSO is 270 meters long, 54.5 meters wide, 31.5 meters deep, and the living quarters can accommodate 140 people.
TechnipFMC, now split into two independent companies, won the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning (EPCIC) contract worth up to $1 billion back in 2019.
Cosco was responsible for engineering, procurement, and construction of the FPSO’s main hull and living quarters, as well as the construction of topside modules.
FPSO will “soon” depart to Mauritania and Senegal
“This FPSO is a key part of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG project and will soon sail to Mauritania and Senegal to create a new energy hub in Africa,” Technip Energies said in a short social media post announcing the completion of the unit.
BP’s partner in the Tortue FLNG project, Kosmos, recently revealed that the FPSO sailaway date had been postponed due to Covid and the unit is expected to depart China in the fourth quarter of this year.
Kosmos said that the partners continue to target first gas in the third quarter of 2023 with first LNG by end of 2023.
Besides the FPSO, Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard continues to progress with the conversion works on Golar LNG’s 2.5 mtpa Gimi FLNG.
The FPSO will process gas from the Tortue/Ahmeyim field, removing heavier hydrocarbon components, prior to delivering it to the floating LNG provider which will sit nearshore a hub.
In addition to the first phase of the Tortue project, BP, Kosmos, and national oil companies Petrosen and SMHPM, are working on a second phase of the project as well.
A development decision is planned at the end of the third quarter, according to Kosmos.