Woodside Energy has completed construction of the floating production, storage and offloading vessel destined for its Sangomar oilfield development offshore Senegal and has acknowledged its Chinese sub-contractors for their fabrication and conversion works.
The Leopold Sedar Senghor FPSO, named after Senegal’s first president, is now en route from China to Keppel Offshore & Marine’s Tuas yard in Singapore for completion of topsides integration and where pre-commissioning and commissioning activities will be performed.
First oil is on track for late 2023.
The FPSO, a converted very large crude oil carrier, will have the capacity to produce 100,000 barrels per day of crude.
The Sangomar Phase 1 project is currently around 70% complete and will be Senegal’s first offshore oil project. The development includes the FPSO, 23 wells and supporting subsea infrastructure, designed to allow the tie-in of subsequent phases.
Australian operator Woodside in 2020 awarded Modec of Japan the contract for the floater for its Sangomar Phase 1 development.
Hull and marine works, external turret and topsides module installation and conversion work on the FPSO were completed by China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industries (Cosco). The topsides modules were built by Cosco and compatriot Bomesc Engineering Company (Bomesc) while China’s Penglai Jutal Offshore Engineering (PJOE) built the external turret mooring system.
Woodside chief Meg O’Neill acknowledged the achievements of Modec, Cosco, Bomesc and PJOE in completing the fabrication and conversion works.
“The Chinese yards achieved excellent safety performance throughout this phase of construction, logging more than 16 million hours of complex construction work without a lost-time injury event.
“The construction teams also successfully navigated the challenges posed by pandemic-related travel and logistical restrictions throughout 2021 and 2022, ensuring the FPSO remained on schedule for start-up at the Sangomar field in late 2023,” she said on Tuesday.
However, Upstream reported on 11 November that the floater was being moved from China to Singapore for the topsides integration work, apparently due to concerns over China’s coronavirus lockdown measures and how they might have an impact on the completion of the project.
The Leopold Sedar Senghor FPSO is now expected to be delivered from Keppel O&M in the first quarter of next year.
Woodside has an 82% operated participating interest in the Sangomar project with Petrosen holding the remaining 18%.
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