ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Ltd. (EEPGL) has let a subsea contract to Saipem for the proposed Payara development project on the Stabroek block offshore Guyana.
The contract scope includes subsea structures, risers, and flowlines. Water depth at the site is 2,000 m.
Saipem was awarded earlier subsea contracts for the first two phases of the Liza development in Guyana by EEPGL in 2017 and in 2018, respectively (OGJ Online, May 17, 2017). In July 2017, ExxonMobil reported the 500 million-boe Payara discovery, which is northwest of the Liza Phase 1 project (OGJ Online, July 25, 2017). Earlier in November EEPGL let a contract for a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel for the development to SBM Offshore (OGJ Online, Nov. 7, 2019).
Subject to government approvals, project sanction by EEPGL and its partners Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd. and an authorization to proceed with the final phase, Saipem will perform the detailed engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of a large subsea production facility. It will include 130 km of flowlines, rigid risers, associated terminations and jumpers together with the installation of manifolds, flexible risers, dynamic and static umbilicals, and flying leads. Testing and precommissioning of the subsea field will follow installation.
Before the necessary government approvals and project sanction, the contract award will allow the start of limited activities, namely detailed engineering and procurement.
Saipem vessels FDS2 and Constellation will perform the offshore operations using a combination of different pipelay methods.
Furthermore, Saipem has been awarded certain variation orders for additional works linked to ongoing offshore E&C projects in Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and in the North Sea. Saipem puts the overall value of the aforementioned contracts, together with the Guyana contract, at $880 million.
