Friday 21 July 2017

Italian operator sounding out contractors over plans for 56,000-tonne facility that could tie in with plans for additional projects off Libya.Italy's Eni is in talks with work-hungry fabrication yards across the globe about building a massive new fixed platform for a significant gas and condensate project in the Mediterranean Sea.

Industry sources said the Milan-headquartered operator is talking to market players about building a 56,000-tonne fixed platform to be installed in water depths of about 220 metres.

It is not 100% certain where this huge new platform will be needed although there are strong indications among market observers that North Africa — but not Egypt — is the ultimate destination.

“We understand that it’s a Libyan project,” said one informed source, who added that “Eni is doing a market survey to check prices for the fixed platform and see if it’s within their (budget) expectations”.

Eni — via its 50:50 Mellitah Oil & Gas joint venture with Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation — is known to be considering additional gas and condensate projects close to its existing Bouri and Bahr Essalam facilities in Block NC41.

In its March 2017 strategy presentation, Eni identified the A and E structures off Libya as being potential candidates for a final investment decision before 2020.

It is understood that each will be developed by a large fixed platform and are due on stream after 2020 with production peaking at 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, net to Eni.

It is understood that the latest market inquiry, issued early this month, focuses on the massive platform likely destined for the E structure. The status of any inquiries for the A structure platform is not known.

This inquiry is focused on yard capabilities, availabilities and indicative costs for a 31,000-tonne, 235-metre high jacket plus 24 piles with a total weight of almost 15,000 tonnes.

If Eni decides to press ahead with the next stage of this project, the contract up for grabs will take in engineering, procurement and construction of jacket and piles.

However, no decision has been made to progress to pre-qualification or formal invitation-to-tender exercises.

Few yards can handle this size of jacket, not even Saipem’s Intermare Sarda facility in Sardinia — which built the 23,000-tonne Sabratha jacket — because it only has a capacity of 25,000 tonnes.

As a result, Eni may choose non-Italian yards, with facilities in Asia — including those in China such as COOEC — and the Middle East likely to be interested.

It is unclear which, if any, yards in Europe — such as Dragados, Kvaerner and Heerema — or North America have the ability to build this size jacket.

This jacket will support a 25,000-tonne integrated topsides, consisting of a 21,000-tonne main deck, a 1500-tonne living quarters and a 2500-tonne drilling rig.

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, which built the 12,000-tonne deck for the Sabratha platform, will hope to secure the main deck fabrication contract. Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are also likely to show interest.

McDermott, Saipem and COOEC may also be interested in this work but this could not be confirmed.

This new platform will support 18 dry trees and have the ability to separate gas and condensate well streams and compress the gas.

It was understood that the topsides price indications were submitted by a number of yards last year.

While the jacket would be launched from a barge, Eni could install the topsides via a float-over method or may even charter Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit heavy lift vessel for the job.

If Eni takes a final investment decision on this project in 2017, then the platform could be up and running in 2021, said one source, stressing that a 2020 start-up date would be a challenge. One source said that a final investment decision "could be expected in the fourth quarter this year”.

Eni’s Bouri field has been developed via two platforms and a floating storage and offloading vessel called Gaza, while Bahr Essalam is producing through a fixed platform called Sabratha. Bouri’s oil is exported via the FSO while gas and condensate is piped to Sabratha to co-mingle with gas and liquids from that field before being sent to shore at the Mellitah gas terminal.

From Mellitah, the gas is exported to Sicily via the 520-kilometre Green Stream pipeline which has an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic metres although production last year was about 4.9 Bcm.