By an OGJ correspondent
NICOSIA, Feb. 4 -- Smit Transport & Heavy Lift BV, Rotterdam, is providing inshore lifting and installation services associated with the topside work on Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Co. Ltd.'s 300,000 dwt Bonga floating production, storage, and offloading vessel.
The work is being carried out under a contract awarded to Smit by the UK-based AMEC PLC, which is responsible for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the FPSO topsides under a £300 million contract won from Royal Dutch/Shell in early 2001 (OGJ Online, Mar. 15, 2001).
Smit's work will last 5 weeks and requires its Asian Hercules II floating sheerlegs, which has a 3,200-tonne lift capacity, to raise processing modules from delivery barges or quayside, transport them to the Bonga, and position them on deck supports.
The modules include power generation, Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) system, port subsea, port process, water flood, starboard subsea, starboard process, flare scrubber, gas sales metering, vapor recovery unit, port field gas compressor, mid-field gas compressor, starboard field gas compressor, the compressor control building, lay-down module, flare boom, main pipe rack, and pedestal cranes.
The heaviest lifts are the generation and starboard process modules, weighing about 2,600 tonnes each, while five other modules weigh 1,600-2,300 tonnes each.
Samsung of South Korea built the Bonga's hull, which was towed to the UK where AMEC is undertaking the integration and commissioning of topside production facilities for installation.
Following completion of AMEC's work in late 2003, the Bonga will be moored in water 1,000 m deep in Nigeria's Bonga oil field, 120 miles off the Niger Delta, where Shell expects to begin operations in early 2004.
The Bonga FPSO, having a length of 305 m and a beam of 58 m, will have a storage capacity of up to 2 million bbl. Shuttle tankers will transport the oil, while a subsea pipeline will deliver the gas to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. pla
