Total on Tuesday announced that the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel for its Egina deepwater field will be received in Nigeria either by March or April 2017.

The 200,000 bpd capacity FPSO vessel is currently being constructed by Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries at a cost of $3.3 billion.

According to Ahmadu-Kida Musa, the Deputy Managing Director of Total E & P handling the Deepwater District, the $16 billion Egina field was Total’s next deepwater project in development phase after it was discovered in 2003 and the Final Investment Decision (FID) as signed in 2013.

He added that the project is 54% complete. With seven oil producing wells and four water injection wells already drilled, the company is aiming to produce 200,000 bopd from Egina by 2018.

“Egina is the next field on development phase. It was discovered in 2003 with FID taken in 2013. It is in the same environment with Akpo in the same Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130. For Total to sanction $16 billion project when nobody was willing to invest shows the company’s boldness. Total committed hundreds of millions of dollars without guarantee. Egina FPSO is one of the largest in the world. Sometime in March or April 2017, the Apapa Wharf will be blocked when the 300 metres FPSO will come into the country,” he told This Day.

Musa revealed that the fabrication works for the Egina field, which is situated 2km under the waters, was completed by Saipem, Nestoil, Nigerdock, Dorman Long and Aveon.

Anita Fatunji