The Bouri field is located 120 km northwest of Tripoli, Libya and consists of a central processing platform and a satellite platform in water depths of 170 m. A new-build FSO (Gaza) was required to replace the existing Sloug FSO, which has been operating in place at the Bouri field since 1988. The Gaza FSO is an ultra-large vessel with a length of 324 m and a width of 51 m. It is equivalent to approximately 3.5 football stadiums and has the capacity of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil storage. The hull size of the FSO is approximately 210,000 DWT.
The Challenge
The ageing FSO, which had been in operation since 1988, needed to be replaced in order to maintain production, increase storage volumes, and increase operational efficiency and flexibility.
Our Approach
The Intecsea project team faced numerous challenges, including a three-month delay due to financial difficulties encountered by the Korean EPC contractor and intense cost pressure from our client. Intecsea used its global resource base to rapidly deploy a multi-discipline team to the STX shipyard in Korea, while also monitoring the Subsea, Umbilicals, Risers, Flowlines (SURF) fabrication scope in Batam, Indonesia.
In March 2016 the FSO began its journey from the shipyard to the Bouri Field, arriving in May. Intecsea moved with the client team to Malta and also deployed a small offshore contingent to oversee the installation. The full scope covered the FSO, subsea flowline, flexible riser, HV cable and modifications and upgrades to the Bouri Platform (transformer, switch gear, control system, J-tubes and associated structure).
Results
The work was completed on time and on budget and without interruption of production.