Stolt Offshore Reports Milestone Reached On Girassol Field

Stolt Offshore reported that, following the TotalFinaElf announcement of first oil production from the Girassol field, that a major milestone had been reached on this unique field development on which Stolt Offshore has been working for four years.

The operator of the field is TotalFinaElf with a 40 percent interest. Other partners are Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited (20 percent), BP (16.67 percent), Statoil (13.3 percent) and Norsk Hydro (10 percent).

Girassol is being developed under a production sharing agreement with Sonangol, the national oil company of Angola. Stolt Offshore has been involved in two parts of the development. Firstly as the joint venture manager and 50/50 partner with Bouygues Offshore in the Mar Profundo Girassol joint venture, which has designed and managed the construction of worlds largest FPSO. Secondly, as the joint venture manager and 66/33 partner with Bouygues Offshore in the Alto Mar Girassol joint venture which designed, fabricated and installed the subsea flowline bundles, riser towers, mooring and offshore loading system for the field. Bernard Vossier, Chief Executive Officer, said "The successful delivery of first oil from the Girassol field marks a very significant technology achievement not only for the joint venture partners but for the offshore construction industry as a whole. The challenges presented by this development were numerous as the Girassol field involves the largest deepwater infrastructure ever to be installed in a water depth of 1350 metres. Certain of the technologies that we have developed for this project are easily extendable to oil fields in water depths of 3,000 metres. The experience that Stolt Offshore have gained, particularly in the installation phase of this project, is unique in our industry and will be of considerable value in tendering for and executing other deepwater projects.”