Altera Hires DOF to Install Voyageur Spirit FPSO Offshore Ivory Coast
Altera Infrastructure has hired DOF to install Voyageur Spirit floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit as well as one floating storage unit (FSO) at Eni-operated Baleine oil field offshore Ivory Coast.
The project includes the complete installation of seabed mooring systems, flowline between the FSO – a converted shuttle tanker Nordic Brasilia - and the Voyageur Spirit FPSO, along with their associated equipment.
The contract for the redeployment of the FPSO and the FSO was secured by Altera back in October 2023.
Voyageur Spirit is a cylindrical-shaped FPSO, that previously operated on the Huntington field in the North Sea until 2020. The shuttle tanker Nordic Brasilia has been converted into an FSO to provide additional storage capacity to the Voyageur FPSO. Altera owns and operates both vessels.
DOF`s contract scope includes project management, engineering, transportation, installation and hook-up of floating units in the field.
According to DOF, it will mobilize Skandi Skansen anchor handling vessel for the project, totaling more than 130 vessel days. Offshore operations are planned to start from the third quarter of 2024.
The FSO and FPSO are set for deployment on the Baleine field with a 15-year firm contract as part of the project’s second phase.
The development of the project will be on a fast-track schedule, with a planned start-up date for Phase 2 in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Eni started production of oil and gas from the first phase of the Baleine development in August 2023, with first production coming less than two years after the discovery in September 2021 and less than a year and a half after the final investment decision.
Baleine has been described as the largest hydrocarbon discovery in Ivorian sedimentary basin.
Eni currently holds interests in the CI-101 and CI-802 blocks - where the Baleine field extends - as well as in five other deep-water Ivorian blocks, all with Petroci Holding as a partner.
To remind, the Voyageur Spirit was warm stacked in the dry dock from July 2020 to August 2022 at Kishorn Port & Dry Drock (KPL), where it was then moored outside the dock for a further eight months.
The FPSO was supported by KPL port and marine staff throughout this period. The Voyageur Spirit was floated onto the Cosco Shipping heavy load carrier vessel, Xin Yao Hua, before heading to Drydocks World in Dubai for life extension work and field-specific modifications, together with Nordic Brasilia FSO.
