Oil Search (PNG) Ltd., a subsidiary of Santos Ltd., has awarded ABL a marine warranty survey contract for installation of Papua New Guinea's first offshore floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel as part of the PNG Oilfields Projects in Papua New Guinea.

ABL will provide marine warranty survey services (MWS) to support the supply, transportation, installation, pre-commissioning, and commissioning of equipment for the FSO.

The work scope includes overseeing pipe load-out operations in India, load-out of coated pipe, spools, and pipeline-end manifolds (PLEM) at Batam in Indonesia, and flexible riser load-out in Newcastle, UK.

On-site in Papua New Guinea, the ABL team will approve pipelaying and the installation of PLEMs, the FSO mooring installation and FSO hook-up to mooring, and the flexible riser pull-in. ABL will also provide yard attendance in Indonesia. 

Work is expected to run through to 2028.

Papua New Guinea’s first FSO 

The FSO will be deployed at the Kumul marine terminal as part of the Kutubu pipeline system. It will store and offload liquid hydrocarbons, including crude oil and condensate, produced from various fields. Associated gas will be fed into the PNG LNG project which obtains gas from Elk-Antelope gas field in the PRL 15 license in the Gulf Province, onshore Papua New Guinea.