Bumi Armada irons out FPSO deal in India

Malaysia’s Bumi Armada has sorted out the arrangements for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel working for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) off the coast of India.

After Bumi Armada’s joint-venture company with Shapoorji Pallonji Energy Private, Shapoorji Pallonji Armada Oil & Gas Services Pte Ltd (SPAOGSPL), received a notification of award from ONGC, effective from March 8, 2025, for the O&M of the FPSO Armada Sterling II, the terms and conditions of the award were left to be finalized, which has now been turned into an O&M contract signed by SPAOGSPL and ONGC.

The O&M deal is valid for a fixed period of three years with an annual option to extend the charter for up to three additional years. The fixed three-year firm O&M period has an estimated total value of INR 2.5 billion (approximately $29.2 million).

The Malaysian player’s joint-venture company, Armada C7 (AC7), also received a notification of award from India’s energy giant for the bareboat charter lease of the same FPSO, which has now been finalized into a bareboat charter contract and signed by the duo.

This three-year charter, effective from March 8, 2025, comes with an annual option to extend for up to three additional years. The fixed three-year firm period under the bareboat charter has an estimated total value of $101.9 million (approximately RM 451.4 million).

Armada Sterling II, which was converted into an FPSO in 2014, produces 30,000 barrels of oil per day and yields 1.8 million cubic metres of natural gas. In March 2013, ONGC hired the FPSO to operate in its Cluster-7 fields about 210 kilometers off the west coast of Mumbai under a nine-year firm charter, with seven annual extension options.

The nine-year firm time-charter began in March 2015. ONGC’s Cluster-7 entails the B-192, B-45, and WO-24 marginal fields, all in Bombay High in water depths of 80-88 meters. While B-192 is an oil and gas field, B-45 and WO-24 are gas fields. 

Meanwhile, Bumi Armada has disclosed that the due diligence exercise with MISC is currently ongoing, under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) the duo signed to explore a prospective merger with the latter’s offshore business via an all-share transaction.