Baker Hughes to take care of turbomachinery equipment on Eni’s FLNG

Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes has secured a new service contract for the maintenance and monitoring of turbomachinery equipment operations at Coral Sul FLNG, the first deepwater floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit operating off the coast of Mozambique on the Eni-led Coral South project.

Baker Hughes announced on Friday that the service contract will have a duration of eight years, starting at the end of 2022.

As explained by the oilfield services company, the contractual service agreement is an example of its shared-success model with customers, which aligns mutual incentives under an outcome-based service contract. This approach will guarantee the performance of the rotating equipment at Coral Sul FLNG under pre-determined metrics, such as reliability of compressors and efficiency and low emissions of gas turbines.

The contract also includes a provision of resident engineers, supervisors, repairs and spare parts to support maintenance activities.

As part of the scope, Baker Hughes will also provide remote monitoring and diagnostics services, leveraging its iCenter capabilities, including Carbon Optimizer as well as a suite of other digital services based on Bently Nevada’s System 1 technology, which includes health and maintenance monitoring, data services and cyber-asset management.

This new service agreement builds on an existing Coral Sul FLNG contract awarded to Baker Hughes in 2017 for the project’s power and gas refrigeration process, including four turbo-compression trains with aeroderivative gas turbine and centrifugal compressor technology, as well as four turbo-generation units.

Rod Christie, executive vice president of Turbomachinery & Process Solutions at Baker Hughes, commented: “Demand for LNG is on the rise, illustrating how natural gas is playing a foundational role in supporting the many types of transitions along the paths to net-zero emissions. This deal also represents the expertise and portfolio of comprehensive solutions that the recently announced Industrial & Energy Technology business segment of Baker Hughes will provide to customers.”

Coral Sul FLNG is the first deepwater floating LNG facility operating on the Eni-led Coral South Project on behalf of Area 4 Partners (ExxonMobil CNPC, GALP, KOGAS and ENH). With a liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tons/year, Coral Sul FLNG will put in production 450 billion cubic meters of gas from the giant Coral reservoir, located in the Rovuma Basin Area 4 offshore Mozambique at a water depth of around 2,000 meters.

Coming from the Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard in South Korea, the FLNG arrived at the final operating site offshore Mozambique in early January 2022. Mooring and connection to six underwater production wells were finalized in March and May 2022, respectively.

In June, the Coral South Project achieved the introduction of hydrocarbons to the Coral Sul FLNG plant from the Coral South reservoir. Following the introduction of hydrocarbons, it is expected to begin operations later in 2022, becoming the first LNG project in Mozambique to come online for exports.

Earlier this year, Italy’s Saipem was also put in charge of maintenance services on the Coral FLNG, covering the maintenance of the entire facility and onboard supervision as well as the creation of an onshore logistical base.