Page 11 - GLNG Week 46 2022

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Nigeria’s UTM Offshore

set to sign FEED contract

for FLNG project

CONTRACTS JULIUS Rone, the CEO and managing director next year but did not comment on the delay.
of Nigeria’s UTM Offshore, revealed on Novem- According to previous reports, JGC has
ber 15 that his company was preparing to sign a already completed a pre-FEED study for the
front-end engineering and design (FEED) ser- FLNG project, which envisions the construction
vices contract for the country’s first floating LNG of a vessel with a single production train and a
(FLNG) project. storage capacity of 200,000 cubic metres. As a
Rone told LNG Prime that UTM Offshore result of that study, UTM Offshore has decided
was scheduled to finalise the FEED contract in to raise the production capacity of the vessel’s gas
London on November 16. The contract will be liquefaction unit from 1.2mn tonnes per year
executed by a group of international companies, (tpy) to 1.52mn tpy.
including Technip Energies (France), KBR (US) The FLNG will be handling associated gas
and JGC (Japan), he said. from Yoho, an oilfield located within the OML
He did not divulge the exact value of the deal. 104 licence area. ExxonMobil and its state-
LNG Prime noted, though, that UTM Offshore owned partner, Nigerian National Petroleum
had teamed up with the African Export-Import Co. Ltd (NNPCL), began extracting crude from
Bank (Afreximbank) last year to secure up to Yoho in 2003 and have been flaring associated
$5bn in financing for the FLNG project, with gas or re-injecting it into the reservoir to maxim-
about $2bn of the total reserved for the first ise oil output. Now that the site is mature, how-
phase of operations. ever, they see the FLNG project as a means of
It also pointed out that the bank had signed changing course and commercialising the field’s
a heads of terms (HoT) with the Nigerian com- gas as oil yields decline.
pany in June 2022 with the intent of pushing the As of last year, Yoho was still yielding about
scheme forward. That document provides for 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. ExxonMobil
Afreximbank to cover the costs of geotechnical and NNPCL have been using a floating produc-
studies and other studies up until the point of tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel to
financial close and a final investment decision develop the offshore site. Presumably, the FLNG
(FID) on the project, it said. vessel will be installed near the FPSO, at a site
UTM Offshore is now looking to take an FID about 60 km off the coast of Akwa Ibom state.
on building the FLNG before the end of 2023, UTM Offshore will serve as the operator of
he told LNG Prime on November 16. Previously, the FLNG. Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch commodities
Rone had said that he expected the company to trader, is slated to take delivery of all the LNG
reach this milestone in the second quarter of that the Nigerian company produces.™

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