Offshore staff
HAMILTON, Bermuda – Golar LNG says conversion of the floating LNG (FLNG) vessel Hilli for use on gas fields offshore Cameroon is proceeding to plan and remains under budget.
Recently around 4,500 contractors were working on the project.
Testing and pre-commissioning has started and will continue in Singapore until the vessel’s scheduled for re-delivery from the yard in May. Commissioning and production should begin by the end of September.
Perenco is on track with its scope of works in Cameroon while state-owned SNH remains committed to its stake in the project.
The government is also supportive of opportunities to tie in neighboring stranded offshore gas reserves to increase use of the vessel, which was recently renamedHilli Episeyo.
On Nov. 10, theOneLNG partnership between Golar LNG and Schlumberger signed an agreement with Ophir Holdings and Ventures Ltd. to establish a joint venture to commercialize the 2.6 tcf of gas in the Fortuna field offshore Equatorial Guinea.
The joint venture will own both Ophir’s share of the block R license and the FLNG vesselGandria, with the aim of producing 2.2-2.5 MMt/yr of LNG over 15-20 years.
A final investment decision looks set to be taken by mid-year and theGandria is now heading to Keppel Shipyard for initial refurbishment.
Golar LNG estimates capex for the project at $2 billion, of which around $1.5 billion will be used to convert the FLNGGandria, the remainder covering upstream work to bring gas from the field to the vessel.
Sonagas, the national gas company of Equatorial Guinea, has also expressed interest in taking a stake in the vessel.
OneLNG is working on four to five other projects that would each involve deployment of one or more FLNG units. These range from fully integrated projects where OneLNG would also be reserve holders to others where FLNG units are rented on a tariff basis to major gas companies.
Finally, the floating storage and regasification unitGolar Tundra remains anchored off the coast of Ghana.
Charterer, West Africa Gas Ltd. (WAGL) has received parliamentary approval for its gas sales agreement but major construction works concerning a connecting pipeline, jetty and breakwater are still to be completed.
Until this infrastructure is in place the FSRU cannot begin operations. Golar remains in dialogue with WAGL on an alteration of the existing charter agreement, including a later start-up and an extension of the charter period.
02/28/2017
