Marathon Oil on Thursday announced that it has achieved first gas production from the Alba B3 compression platform located 32 km of the coast of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.The new platform will allow the company and its partner Noble Energy to process about 130 million barrels of oil equivalent from the Alba field and extend the field’s life by 10 years to 2034.

The engineering, procurement and construction of the platform was done by Heerema, with Iv-Oil & Gas as a partner at the Heerema Fabrication Group's Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands. The compression platform, which has a 5800-tonne topsides, will let Marathon maintain peak production till 2018.

The building of the platform began in 2011. The topsides is 40 metres by 40 metres and 35 metres high while the jacket weighs 2600 tonnes and measures 91 metres.Meanwhile, local contractor ECG constructed the 33-metre bridge to connect the platform to the existing Alba B2 platform, and also built the 73-metre flare stack.

The platform compresses gas from the Alba field to the processing facilities on Bioko Island.

Marathon operated the field with 65% alongside Noble Energy with 35%. State-owned GEPetrol is also a partner on the field, Upstream news reports.

Anita Fatunji