Alba First Gas for Marathon
Thursday 14 July 2016
Marathon Oil has reached first gas production from its Alba B3 compression platform off Equatorial Guinea.
The new platform will allow the US independent and compatriot block partner Noble Energy to convert around 130 million barrels of oil equivalent from the Alba field, some 32 kilometres off the coast of the capital, Malabo.
The platform, built at Heerema Fabrication Group's Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands, will allow Houston-based Marathon to maintain plateau production for the next two years.
Engineering, procurement and construction for the new platform was managed by Heerema, with Iv-Oil & Gas as a partner. Heerema also did the installation, using the heavy-lift Thialf crane vessel, and completed the commissioning and final hook-up.
Construction of the platform - which has a 5800-tonne topsides - began in 2011. The topsides measures 40 metres by 40 metres and is 35 metres high.
The jacket, built at Heerema's Vlissingen facility, weighs 2600 tonnes and measures 91 metres.
Local contractor ECG built the 33-metre bridge to link the platform to the existing Alba B2 platform, and also built the 73-metre flare stack.
The new platform compresses gas from the Alba field to the processing facilities on Bioko Island. It is designed to extend Alba's field life by 10 years to 2034.
Marathon holds around 65% in the Alba field and is operator. Noble has around 35% and state-owned GEPetrol is also a partner.