ABS Tapped for West Africa Field Developments

Floating production is the system of choice for all deepwater developments off West Africa to date. The combination of no pipelines, huge reservoirs and benign climate conditions equals the use of floating production, storage and offloading or FPSO vessels. ABS has been tapped by Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), the contractor of ExxonMobil, to provide classification and certification services, including condition assessment of tankers, technical design review, surveys during refurbishment, conversion and hook-up and commissioning for three FPSOs for installation offshore West Africa. These FPSOs will be operated by Esso Deepwater Ltd., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. The Esso project is known as Early Production Systems or EPS and SBM has the contract for the design, procurement and construction of the trio of FPSOs with ABS as the classification society of record. The three systems are currently undergoing conversion from existing VLCCs into FPSOs in Singapore and Dubai. On completion they will be assigned a new class notation X A1 Floating Offshore Installation and issued an IMO MODU Safety Certificate on behalf of the Bahamas Flag administration. The three FPSOs being classed by ABS are: FPSO Falcon. Formerly the Amazon Falcon VLCC, this FPSO will be installed in the Yoho field offshore Nigeria at 60m. water depth. The FPSO Falcon will be equipped with an external turret mooring system and production facilities capable of producing 100,000 barrels per day of oil and 100 MMscfd of gas. The conversion was scheduled to be completed in July 2002. FPSO Eagle. Formerly the Amazon Eagle VLCC, this FPSO will be installed in the Zafiro field offshore Equatorial Guinea at 515m. water depth. The FPSO Eagle will be equipped with an external turret mooring system and with production facilities capable of producing 110,000 blpd of oil and 95MMscfd of gas. It also will be able to import 185,000 barrels per day of oil from existing facilities in the field. The conversion is scheduled for completion in August 2003. FPSO Atlantic. Formerly the Atlantic VLCC, this FPSO will be installed in Block 15 of the Xikomba field offshore Angola at a water depth of 1300m. It will be equipped with an external turret and production facilities capable of producing 90,000 blpd of oil. The entire field will consist of nine subsea wells tied back to the FPSO. This conversion is at the earliest stages and just commenced in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is scheduled for completion in November 2003.