BW Offshore wraps up divestment of another FPSO

Norway’s FPSO operator BW Offshore has completed the sale of a floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is currently working offshore the Ivory Coast.

According to BW Offshore, the transaction for the sale of the FPSO Espoir Ivoirien has been closed for a total consideration of $20 million. Following this transaction, the company will provide transitional operations and maintenance (O&M) services for a period of up to five months.

The sale does not come as a shock since the FPSO operator has been engaged in sale talks for this vessel over the past few months. The FPSO works on the CNR International-operated Espoir field off the Ivory Coast and has an oil production capacity of 45,000 bbl/d.

The production at the field started in 2002 while the oil produced from the Espoir East and West reservoir is processed, stored, and offloaded from the FPSO located between the two wellhead towers.

The sale announcement comes after Tullow Oil revealed it was considering all options for its interest in this field, as part of its capital allocation strategy, which focuses on its highest return-producing assets to maximise cash flow.

This divestment comes almost two months after BW Offshore sold the FPSO BW Athena and nearly three months after the firm offloaded the FPSO BW Opportunity. In addition, the company got rid of several vessels last year, including the FPSO Cidade de São Vicente and the FPSO BW Joko Tole.

Moreover, BW Offshore is working on expanding the niche oil and gas segment by redeploying existing FPSOs and divesting non-core assets. To this end, the company is engaged in divestment dialogues for FPSOs:  Abo and Sendje Berge and aims to close these deals in 1H 2023.

Additionally, the FPSO operator expects the recycling of the FPSO Petróleo Nautipa late in 2023 and the conclusion of the sale of the FPSO Polvo in 2Q 2023.