Norwegian firm hands over piece of equipment for Africa-bound FPSO ahead of deadline

Techouse, a Norway-headquartered offshore heat recovery solutions and customized water treatment packages provider, has wrapped up its scope of work for a cylindrical floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with the delivery of a new sulfate removal unit (SRU). This FPSO will be deployed at Eni’s oil and gas development offshore Côte d’Ivoire, Africa.

After winning the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract in the first quarter of 2023 for SRU destined to be installed on board the FPSO Voyageur Spirit, which will work off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, Techouse engineered, constructed, and delivered the SRU in less than 12 months as a subcontractor to the FPSO owner and operator, Altera Infrastructure.

Svein Helge Pettersen, Techouse’s CEO, commented: “We won this SRU contract partly because we could deliver it as a fast-track project. I am proud of our entire team, and our suppliers, who demonstrated their ability to deliver within such a tight deadline. We even delivered the SRU six weeks before the contracted delivery date, which is 10^th May this year.”

To take care of the engineering, project management, and procurement work, Techouse utilized its international engineering network, including offices in Stavanger and Oslo in Norway, Glasgow in Scotland, and Qingdao, China. While explaining that sulfate removal is a technology used by the oil and gas industry to produce low-sulfate water for injection in offshore wells, the company disclosed that the construction of the 200-ton SRU was conducted by its subcontractor, Audex Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Knut Haga, Techouse’s Project Director, remarked: “Perhaps just as impressive as the fast-track delivery is that we handed over the SRU without punches, meaning that all work and components fully conformed to the specifications in the construction contract. Maintaining high quality standards is also possible for fast-track projects, and Altera Infrastructure and Eni deserve credit for their commitment to such ambitious project execution plans.”

Following the construction phase, the SRU was transported via barge from Fujairah to DryDocks World in Dubai, where the FPSO Voyageur Spirit is being upgraded for the Baleine Phase 2 project. Once completed, the FPSO will be transported to the Baleine deepwater field in Côte d’Ivoire, thanks to 15-year contracts, which Altera Infrastructure secured in October 2023 for the redeployment of the FPSO Voyageur Spirit and the Nordic Brasilia shuttle tanker, which is being converted into an FSO. 

The 2008-built FPSO with a dead weight of 45,145 t previously operated on the Huntington field in the North Sea until 2020. Eni began production from the Baleine field at the end of August 2023, less than two years after the discovery in September 2021 and less than a year and a half after the final investment decision (FID) was made. This followed the sail-away of the FPSO Firenze – renamed Baleine upon its mooring. 

The start of Phase 2, anticipated by the end of 2024, will boost field production to 50,000 bbl/d of oil and approximately 70 mscf/d of associated gas. The third development phase aims to increase field production to 150,000 bbl/d of oil and 200 mscf/d of gas.