Petrofac to assist with Marathon Oil's Alba field offshore steel jacket facilities

Petrofac has secured a new master service agreement contract that will support Marathon Oil in Equatorial Guinea.  

Under the agreement, Petrofac will provide technical authority and discipline engineering support for five offshore steel jacket facilities in the Alba Field and the Alba Gas Plant onshore.

Petrofac previously provided engineering, construction, operations and maintenance services to Marathon Oil's Brae assets in the North Sea. 

Petrofac says Africa is a key focus for its Asset Solutions business. With operations in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Senegal and Mauritania already established, this growth in Equatorial Guinea follows the award of a technical services contract by Compañía Nacional de Petróleos de Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol), the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea.

Marathon Oil owns a 63% operated working interest under a production sharing contract in the Alba field and an 80% operated working interest in Block D, both of which are offshore Equatorial Guinea.

Marathon Oil also owns a 52% interest in Alba Plant LLC, accounted for as an equity method investment, which operates an onshore LPG processing plant located on Bioko Island. Alba field natural gas is processed by the LPG plant under a fixed-price long-term contract. The company says the LPG plant extracts secondary condensate and LPG from the natural gas stream and uses some of the remaining dry natural gas in its operations.

ConocoPhillips entered into a definitive agreement with Marathon Oil Corp. in May to acquire the independent oil and gas E&P company in an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of $22.5 billion, inclusive of $5.4 billion of net debt. The transaction is expected to close this quarter.