APA-Dakar (Senegal) – The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit arrived at the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1 LNG project off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal, BP has announced.
By Abdourahmane Diallo
A decisive step has just been taken in the development of the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas field off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal. As announced by operator BP in a press release to APA, the giant floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO), the centrepiece of the first phase, has arrived at its final location 40 km off the coast and has begun mooring operations at a depth of 120 metres.
This key piece of infrastructure, the size of two football pitches, 10 storeys high and weighing 81,000 tonnes of steel, has travelled more than 12,000 nautical miles from its construction site at the COSCO shipyard in Qidong, China. “Its safe arrival is a testament to the resilience, skill, teamwork and hard work of all partners,” said Dave Campbell, BP’s Senior VP for Mauritania and Senegal.
The FPSO will be the central platform for processing gas produced from the deep subsea reservoirs of the cross-border GTA gas field. It is expected to process up to 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from production wells located at a record depth of 2,850 metres in Mauritanian-Senegalese waters.
After removal of water, condensates and other impurities, the gas will be piped to a floating natural gas liquefaction (FLNG) facility about ten kilometres offshore.
Phase 1 of the GTA project, which BP and its partners estimate will cost several billion dollars, is expected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG per year for more than 20 years.
The LNG from these deep offshore Mauritanian-Senegalese reserves will then be exported by LNG tanker to international markets. A portion will also be reserved to meet the growing domestic demand for natural gas in the two host countries.
“This is a major, innovative project that paves the way for the development of the offshore gas resources of Mauritania and Senegal,” said Dave Campbell.
The presidents of the two countries have given GTA the status of a “national project of strategic importance” for their respective economies.
The technical and logistical challenges of building this subsea natural gas production infrastructure, one of the deepest ever developed on the African continent at almost 3,000 metres below sea level, are considerable.
In total, more than 330,000 inspections were required for this FPSO vessel, which includes 37,000 metres of pipe and 1.52 million metres of cable.
The docking of this centrepiece off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal marks a decisive step in the development of the offshore gas field, the largest of its kind in the Gulf of Guinea region.
Operations are now focusing on installation and testing ahead of the long-awaited start of gas production, opening up new energy prospects for both nations.
ARD/ac/lb/as/APA