Ophir Energy has been given a 12-month extension on its Block R license, home to the Fortuna FLNG, offshore Equatorial Guinea, giving it more time to secure project funding ahead of making a final investment decision.
Fortuna looks set to be Africa’s first deepwater FLNG project. The project, in Block R, some 140km west of Bioko Island, is in 1680-1850m water depth, and is due to comprise a four-train 2.6-2.8 MTPA system, using the converted Moss LNG carrier Gandria, with an NOV external turret and mooring. The project is expected to have a 20-year life with 17 wells in four phases.
Earlier this year, it was targeted for first gas in mid-2020 at a cost of US$2 billion.
The extension takes the firm to the end of December 2018. Ophir says it and its partners have been in discussions with a group of Chinese banks, but that the process has been taking longer than expected. Ophir has also been developing alternative funding sources and is now at an advanced stage with these options.
Ophir says it expects to be able to select one of these options and to finalise the financing arrangements for the project by mid-December 2017. Following this, FID would be expected to takem in Q1 2018.
Nick Cooper, CEO of Ophir, said: “The discussions we have had in recent weeks make us more confident than ever that shareholders will realise significant value from Fortuna.”
In October, Ophir awarded an upstream construction for Fortuna to Schlumberger company OneSubsea and Subsea 7's Subsea Integration Alliance. The contract is an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract for the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) and for the subsea production systems scope of work.
The scope of the EPCIC is to deliver 440 MMscf/d of gas through infrastructure comprising four wells (three into the Fortuna field and one into the underlying Viscata field) at 1790m average water depth.