GE, Eni sign agreement to develop gas resources offshore Mozambique

LONDON – GE Oil & Gas has signed a long-term agreement to collaborate with Eni East Africa, on the offshore Mozambique developments it operates. The move underlines the company’s commitment to expand its global footprint while supporting local investment in Africa, and re-affirms its leadership in large bore technology and cutting-edge subsea equipment and services.

Since 2014, teams from GE and Eni East Africa have been co-developing efficient, cost-effective technical solutions to ensure operational reliability and equipment availability to avoid loss of revenue through unplanned downtime. This was achieved through six-months of front end engineering and design (FEED) work, leveraging the service provider’s in-house engineering capabilities and portfolio of standardized products.

The agreement comprises a multi-year contract to supply subsea production systems, ancillary equipment and services. It covers the Coral South FLNG project and is the first phase of EEA’s strategically-important development plans for the Rovuma basin Area 4 gas resources. The agreement also covers Area 4 future potential upstream projects. It includes a separate five-year aftermarket services contract for life-of-field of the subsea infrastructure, plus one five-year option and five three-year extensions.

GE has secured orders for the Coral South FLNG from Eni for the supply of seven xmas trees, three 2-slot manifolds with integrated distribution units, MB rigid jumpers, seven subsea wellheads with spare components, a complete topside control system to be installed on the FLNG facility, and associated services equipment and support including IWOCS and landing strings, tools, spares and technical assistance for installation, commissioning and start-up.

Underlining the company’s ongoing commitment to localization and investment in Mozambique and the SSA region, 20 local graduate engineers have been employed in the last three years to support customer operations. They attended technical training at the Mozal Training Center in Maputo where they received intense, in-class/laboratory-based instruction on engineering fundamentals and courses in Florence, as well as performing on-the-job training in Brazil, Korea and Colombia to gain hands-on experience with subsea and liquefied natural gas products and equipment.

“Coral South FLNG is the first major subsea development in East Africa and provides the company with the opportunity to affirm our leadership in large bore technology and our standardized portfolio of subsea equipment and services for deep water projects,” said Neil Saunders, GE president and CEO of subsea systems & drilling. “As the only subsea production systems supplier in-country and in East Africa, it provides tremendous opportunities to grow our operations in the region and it further underlines our commitment to drive productivity and cost-efficiency improvements for global projects by building long-term relationships with industry players in place of more outdated transactional approaches.”

Ado Oseragbaje, GE president and CEO of Sub-Saharan Africa, added: “With the award of this project in Mozambique following the recent OCTP Project in Ghana – with first oil delivered ahead of schedule and in record time-to-market – the company reaffirms its subsea leadership in Africa, operating in all the major oil basins and with all international and NOC. We are committed to building capacity in Africa and with the Mozambique project, like we have already demonstrated in Nigeria, Angola and Ghana, we will continue to invest in the years to come, developing a local highly-skilled and motivated workforce.”

The Coral South FLNG project, the first phase of EEA’s wider plan of development for the Rovuma basin Area 4, will see the installation of an FLNG facility with a capacity of around 3.4 MTPA, fed by six subsea wells and expected to produce up to 5 tcf of gas, with an anticipated start-up in mid-2022. The first ever deep water project to start producing gas in Mozambique, it will provide significant local economic benefits through job creation and support the region’s future energy needs.

Eni East Africa is the operator of Area 4, and holds 70% of the Area 4 Concession. Eni (71.43%) and CNPC (28.57%) are shareholders of EEA.

Source: www.worldoil.com