FLNG Unit for BP's Tortue Ahmeyim Project Nearing Completion
The Golar Gimi FLNG unit, being built for BP's Tortue Ahmeyim project in Senegal/Mauritania offshore area, is set to sail away next month.
According to Golar LNG, tasked with delivering the unit, the FLNG Gimi conversion works 97% complete. Golar LNG said that FLNG Gimi was scheduled to leave the yard in September 2023.
„Final checks, storing up and sea trials will then take place in Singapore ahead of her voyage to Mauritania and Senegal, expected to commence around the end of September/early October,“ Golar LNG said.
Contractual Dispute
Golar LNG also said that a contract interpretation dispute between Golar and BP regarding parts of the pre-commissioning contractual cash flows remains, and arbitration proceedings have been initiated.
“This does not impact the wider execution of the 20-year project that is expected to unlock around $3 billion of Adjusted EBITDA Backlog to Golar, equivalent to Annual Adjusted EBITDA of around $151 million,” Golar LNG said.
Golar and BP in February 2019 signed a 20-year deal for the charter of a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) unit, Gimi, and Golar then tasked Keppel with the conversion of the LNG carrier Gimi into an FLNG unit. Golar at the time said that the construction of FLNG Gimi was expected to cost approximately $1.3 billion.
Once delivered, the Gimi FLNG will be used for the development of the Mauritania and Senegal cross-border offshore gas development Tortue/Ahmeyim, one of Africa's deepest offshore projects at 2,000 meters below the sea's surface.
The project will produce gas from an ultra-deepwater subsea system and mid-water floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will process the gas, removing heavier hydrocarbon components.
Gas will then be transferred to the GIMI FLNG at a nearshore hub located on the Mauritania and Senegal maritime border. The FLNG facility is designed to provide circa 2.5 million metric tons of LNG per annum on average. Total gas resources in the field are estimated to be around 15 trillion cubic feet.
Kosmos Energy discovered the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim field in 2015, and BP signed onto the project through an agreement with Kosmos in 2016.
BP is the project operator. The partners sanctioned the first phase of the project development in December 2018. The vessel had been scheduled for delivery in 2022, but an agreement was reached in October 2020 to delay the delivery due to the coronavirus outbreak.