By an OGJ correspondent
NICOSIA, Feb. 4 -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. of South Korea has awarded AMEC PLC and its partner, Fluor Corp., a contract to provide design, engineering, and project management services for ExxonMobil's Kizomba B floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will operate in deep water off the West Africa coast.
Hyundai will handle the main contract for production of the FPSO hull and topsides, which will be fabricated in Hyundai's Ulsan yard in South Korea, while AMEC and Fluor will provide design and engineering for the topside facilities and support the Hyundai project management team in the overall execution of the project.
Under terms of the $760 million contract awarded by ExxonMobil last month, Hyundai is scheduled to install the FPSO by June 2005 and is slated to make formal delivery to the Kizomba consortium a month later after conducting test runs (OGJ Online, Jan. 6, 2003).
The 81,000 tonne Kizomba B vessel will be 285 m long, 63 m wide, and 32 m high. It will be capable of storing 2.2 million bbl of crude oil in its lower hull facilities while processing 250,000 b/d of crude oil. It will be permanently moored in water depths of 1,005-1,280 m.
Kizomba B is Hyundai's second in the series of Kizomba FPSOs, after the $800 million contract awarded by ExxonMobil in August 2001 for development of Kizomba A field. The earlier FPSO has the same dimensions and the same production and storage capacities. The Fluor-AMEC partnership also performed engineering and project management for the Kizomba A FPSO (OGJ Online, Nov. 12, 2001).
The Kizomba project, considered West Africa's largest deepwater development, is 370 km off Angola in 3,300-4,200 ft. of water.
First oil from Kizomba A is anticipated by the end of 2004, while production from Kizomba B is expected in second half 2005. A third phase of the field's development, Kizomba C, is expected to follow 12-18 months after Kizomba B.
Kizomba A development will include tie-ins from Hungo and Chocalho fields, and Kizomba B development plans call for tie-ins from the Kissanje, Mirimba, Dikanza, and Xicomba discoveries.
The Kizomba consortium includes ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration & Production Angola (operator with 40% interest), BP Exploration (Angola) Ltd. 26.67%, Agip Angola Exploration BV 20%, and Norway's Statoil ASA 13.33%. Angola's state oil company Sonangol EP (Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola), is the concessionaire.
