Page 16 - AfrOil Week 13 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

VAALCO contracts DOF Subsea for

infrastructure revamp at Etame field

GABON VAALCO Energy (US) has signed a contract umbilicals and will also assist in connecting new
with DOF Subsea (Norway) for construction risers to the FSO.
and installation services for a new floating stor- VAALCO’s FSO is a re-engineered dou-
age and off-loading (FSO) vessel at the Etame ble-hulled oil tanker – the Cap Diamant. The
block offshore of Gabon. ship is currently in dock undergoing final mod-
In a statement dated March 23, VAALCO ifications and re-certifications, and is slated to
said that DOF Subsea would be reconfiguring begin sea trials in late June.
subsea infrastructure at Etame in order to deploy The FSO will assume the storage and
the FSO in place of the current floating produc- off-loading functions of the Petróleo Nautipa
tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) unit. The FPSO, which is owned by BW Offshore (Nor-
Norwegian company will be responsible for pro- way). VAALCO has been using this vessel at
viding crew, personnel and equipment. Etame under a 20-year charter that is due to
VAALCO said it had already completed expire in September.
engineering and design work for the reconfig- VAALCO explained the decision in eco-
uration project. As such, DOF Subsea will be nomic terms, saying that the vessel will bring
able to begin upgrading the subsea infrastruc- storage and off-loading costs down by nearly
ture in July of this year and wrap up work before 50% and raise storage capacity by 50%, thereby
the FSO’s scheduled deployment the following extending the life of the field.
September. The total gross cost of converting the tanker
In its statement, VAALCO noted that DOF into an FSO will reach $40-50mn, $26-32mn
Subsea intended to use one of its own offshore net to VAALCO. This investment is expected to
construction vessels for the infrastructure reduce the Etame project’s operational costs by
reconfiguration project and would be trans- $20-25mn, $13-16mn net to VAALCO, by 2030,
porting more than 5,000km of flexible pipelines thereby allowing shareholders to recoup their
from the UK to the Etame field for installation. costs in about two and a half years.
The Norwegian company is slated to retrieve VAALCO serves as the operator of Etame
and relocate existing in-field flowlines and Marin and also has a 58.8% stake in the block. ™

The FSO is due to be deployed at the field in Q3-2022 (Image: VAALCO)

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 13 30•March•2022