Petrofac, a London-based engineering firm, clinches a technical services contract from Equatorial Guinea’s state hydrocarbon company, Compañía Nacional de Petróleos de Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol), to support the operations of Block B.
Under the contract, valued at around $350 million over five years, Petrofac will deliver technical services across onshore support bases, a floating production and storage offloading (FPSO) facility, and a platform on behalf of GEPetrol, the operator.
The contract draws on the core services of Petrofac’s Asset Solutions.
division, including operations, maintenance, asset integrity, integrity management, marine services, engineering, project delivery, and supply chain services.
The 2,000-square-kilometre Block B hosts the Zafiro oil field, located 68 kilometres WNW of Bioko Island, adjacent to the international border with Nigeria.
ExxonMobil brought the Zafiro field online in 1996 via subsea wells tied back to the Zafiro Producer floating production unit (FPU). The Zafiro complex is a group
of seven mature fields located in the offshore eastern Niger Delta.
The contract signing “marks a key milestone in our journey to becoming operator of Block B on June 1, 2024,” notes Teresa Isabel Nnang Avomo, Director General of GEPetrol. “We are excited to grow our partnership with Petrofac.
By unlocking the huge potential of our indigenous national workforce, we will
build, with Petrofac’s assistance, an organisation for the long-term management and development of our country’s oil and gas assets.”
A fixed platform called Jade was added to the Zafiro complex in 2000, while the Southern Area Expansion project was brought on stream in 2003 using the FPSO Serpentina. ExxonMobil was forced to stop. production at the Zefiro field in September 2022 due to severe water infiltration into the FPU Zafiro.
Producer.
The contract builds upon Petrofac’s initial scope, aiding in the transition of the asset from Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. (MEGI).
