Shell, Agip to Build New FPSOs in Nigeria

• Shell, Agip to Build New FPSOs in Nigeria

The Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company have set plans in motion for in-country fabrication and integration of over 50 per cent of their projects’ Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading Vessels.

The projects are the Zabazaba deepwater project being executed by the NAE in partnership with SNEPCo on Oil Prospecting Licence 245 and the Bonga South-West Aparo deepwater project being developed by SNEPCo.

According to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Indications emerged last Friday that major contractors bidding for Zabazaba submitted competitive costs and concrete plans to fabricate and integrate over 50 per cent of the FPSO in-country.

The technical and commercial evaluations of bids for the Zabazaba main packages have been reportedly finalised by the NCDMB and the NAE and the submissions were also said to have met the aspiration of maximising local content at the most competitive cost.

The packages included the FPSO units, subsea, installation and rigs.

The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, confirmed the positive development, expressing optimism that the execution of Zabazaba would grow Nigerian content and impact on the economy, much more than previous deepwater projects.

Wabote said the board carried out detailed scoping of the project to ensure that the targets exceeded the accomplishments achieved on Total’s Egina.

According to him, for Egina, six FPSO topside modules were fabricated in-country across some yards and will be integrated when the FPSO arrives at the SHI-MCI yard in Lagos later this year.

He said it would be the first time in the history of Nigeria.

Wabote also informed that the entire approvals and evaluations for Zabazaba were completed in 14 months, setting a cheering record in the industry as against the 24/36 months’ project cycle time that bedevilled the sector for many years and contributed to the high cost of projects.

“It has taken just 14 months since the NAE approached the board with their Nigerian content plan. The NAE and the NCDMB worked closely and went through the standard contracting process, including invitation to tender, clarifications, technical and commercial bid evaluations and facility audits. We completed the process and issued our final report on August 30,” Wabote said.

According to him, it is a confirmation that the NCDMB did not delay projects and that they could achieve the six-month contract cycle target if operators complied with set directives.

The NCDMB executive secretary had stated earlier in the year that more modules would be fabricated locally for future deepwater projects.

He said the board would not rest on its oars with regard to the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act and new projects should look at doing the FPSO integration and more.