…To be completed within initial budget

By Sebastine Obasi

THE local content initiative of the federal government appears to be yielding positive results as the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) of Egina, a 330-meter long vessel designed to process oil and gas from the Egina field, is expected to berth at the quayside in Nigeria for integration of locally fabricated modules. This is a first for Nigeria.

Total’s Egina FPSO

Egina is the largest investment project currently on-going in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. The project is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, (Q4) of 2018, within the initial budget of $16 billion, according to Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, TUPNI, promoter of the project.

Egina is also said to have the highest number of FPSO topside modules (six) to be fully fabricated and integrated in Nigeria. The assembly of the Integrated Control and Safety System of the FPSO was fully performed in Nigeria, while the project includes the fabrication of the largest subsea equipment (manifolds, risers) ever completed in Nigeria, far above what was achieved in previous projects.

With expected 200,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s oil production, about 10 per cent of the country’s total oil production, Total said Egina project was the first major deepwater development project launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act of 2010.

The field was discovered by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) in 2003 within the Oil Mining Licence 130 (OML130) some 200 kilometres South of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The field is being developed by TUPNI in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO and PETROBRAS.