Dutch company SBM Offshore has secured front-end engineering and design (FEED) contracts from ExxonMobil Guyana for the Longtail floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, the company said Tuesday. The FPSO is a key infrastructural aspect necessary to enable the production of resources in a hydrocarbon field.
The award allows initial work to begin and commits one of the company’s proprietary Fast4Ward® hulls to the project. Longtail is ExxonMobil’s eighth planned offshore development in Guyana and the second that would produce from natural gas fields.
SBM Offshore said it expects to build and install the FPSO, pending government approval, a final investment decision and release of the next project phase.
The vessel is designed to produce about 250,000 barrels per day and process 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily, with storage capacity of around 2 million barrels. It will operate in water depths of roughly 1,750 metres.
The company added it will continue integrating Guyanese engineers and sourcing some work locally.
ExxonMobil already submitted the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and said last Thursday that it would submit the field development plan (FDP) to the Ministry of Natural Resources before the end of that week. Those are the two key documents that must be submitted for government review of the project proposal, but Exxon will undergo a period of consultations to account for the public’s comments and questions on the findings of the EIA.
ExxonMobil expects to make a final investment decision on this project before the year ends, and is targeting a production startup by 2030.
ExxonMobil operates the Stabroek Block, where all its projects are located, and its co-venturers are Hess and CNOOC.
