The FPSO vessel, essential to the GTA Phase 1 LNG development, has reached its final offshore destination on the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal.
The FPSO vessel is currently being moored at the site 40 km offshore at a water depth of 120 m. It will be operated by BP on behalf of the project’s partners: BP, Kosmos Energy, PETROSEN, and SMH. The project will produce gas from reservoirs in deep water, approximately 120 km offshore, through a subsea system.
Following completion of its construction at the COSCO Qidong Shipyard, China, the FPSO has traveled more than 12,000 nautical miles to the GTA site.
Dave Campbell, BP’s senior vice president, Mauritania and Senegal, said: ‘BP is investing in today’s energy system—and tomorrow’s too, and GTA Phase 1 represents this investment in action.
‘And this is a huge landmark step for the project, an innovative LNG development that is leading the way in unlocking gas resources for Mauritania and Senegal. The FPSO vessel has traveled halfway around the globe, and its safe arrival and installation are testament to the resilience, skills, teamwork, and huge effort of all the partners involved. We are now entirely focused on the safe completion of the project as we continue to work towards first gas.’
The GTA Phase 1 development is expected to produce around 2.3 million metric tons of LNG annually for more than 20 years. It is the first gas development in this new basin offshore Mauritania and Senegal. With wells located in water depths of up to 2,850 m, the GTA Phase 1 development has the deepest subsea infrastructure in Africa. The multibillion-dollar investment has been granted the status of a national project of strategic importance by the presidents of both Mauritania and Senegal.
The FPSO will have up to 140 people on board during normal operation. With an area equivalent to two football fields and 10 stories in height, the FPSO is made of more than 81,000 metric tons of steel, 37,000 m of pipe spools, and 1.52 million meters of cable.
The FPSO is projected to handle more than 500 million standard cubic feet of gas daily. It will perform the tasks of water, condensate, and impurity removal from the gas before transferring it through pipelines to the FLNG vessel at the Hub Terminal, situated about 10 km offshore. At the FLNG vessel, the gas will undergo cryogenic cooling, liquefaction, and storage before being transported to LNG carriers for export, with a portion allocated to address the increasing demand in the two host nations.
